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VANCOUVER, April 10, 2013 /CNW/ - Ecuador Gold & Copper Corp. (TSX-V:
EGX), (the "Company" or "EGX") is pleased to announce assay results from drill hole DSB-22 at its
Santa Barbara gold-copper porphyry deposit. The Santa Barbara deposit
is located within the Company's 8,300 hectare Condor Gold and Copper
Project in the Zamora Gold and Copper Belt, Southeast Ecuador. Drill
hole DSB-22 returned significant results including 266m averaging
0.99g/t Au and 0.14% Cu within a continuously mineralized 484m interval
that averaged 0.80 g/t Au starting at 190m. Best gold grades were
encountered from 238m to 368m (130m) where grades ranged consistently
over 1.00 g/t Au up to 2.3 g/t Au, averaging 1.23 g./t Au and 0.17%
Cu. Assay results are described in the table below.
DSB-22 is the fourth hole completed at Santa Barbara since August 2012
as part of the previously announced Phase I drill program on the
Company's Condor Gold and Copper Project. This hole was drilled to 677m
at -75 degrees parallel to and southeast of DSB-21 where previously
released results showed 350 meters of 0.74 g/t Au including 206 meters
grading 1.01 g/t Au (see Company News Release, February 26, 2013).
DSB-21 intersected the main gold zone approximately 50m south of
previous intercepts and DSB-22 extends mineralization a further 100m to
the southeast. The Santa Barbara South Zone currently hosts an NI
43-101 compliant inferred resource of 21.0 Mt of 1.00 g/t Au (675,000
oz) while the Santa Barbara North zone (500m to the northeast),
contains a further inferred resource of 5.0 Mt of 0.90 g/t Au (145,000
oz). For further details see the Company's web site at www.ecuadorgoldandcopper.com or the June 14, 2012 Technical Report at www.sedar.com.
Table 1 summarizes the assay results for DSB-22 and previous results
from EGX Phase I drilling at Santa Barbara.
Table 1: Summary of Phase I drill results from Santa Barbara (length
weighted average assays, uncapped)
Drill Hole
|
From (m)
|
To (m)
|
Interval (m)
|
Au (g/t)
|
Cu (%)
|
AuEq (g/t)
|
DSB-19
|
180.00
|
600.00
|
420.00
|
0.57
|
0.08
|
0.68
|
including
|
191.54
|
293.20
|
101.66
|
1.02
|
0.11
|
1.17
|
and
|
344.10
|
477.00
|
132.90
|
0.62
|
0.10
|
0.75
|
DSB-20
|
0.00
|
400.00
|
400.00
|
0.10
|
0.06
|
0.18
|
DSB-21
|
68.00
|
418.00
|
350.00
|
0.74
|
0.11
|
0.89
|
including
|
100.00
|
354.00
|
254.00
|
0.90
|
0.12
|
1.06
|
Including
|
100.00
|
306.00
|
206.00
|
1.01
|
0.12
|
1.17
|
including
|
140.00
|
228.00
|
88.00
|
1.35
|
0.14
|
1.54
|
DSB-22
|
190.00
|
674.00
|
484.00
|
0.80
|
0.13
|
0.97
|
including
|
190.00
|
620.00
|
430.00
|
0.86
|
0.14
|
1.05
|
Including
|
238.00
|
504.00
|
266.00
|
0.99
|
0.14
|
1.18
|
including
|
238.00
|
368.00
|
130.00
|
1.23
|
0.17
|
1.45
|
-
g/t = grams per metric tonne.
-
Gold equivalent grade (AuEq) is calculated assuming 90% recovery of
copper with a $3.00/lb. long term price of copper and $1400 long term
price for gold.
-
The true width of down hole interval lengths are estimated to be
approximately 25% to 50%.
The attached map - Figure 1 shows the location of the drill holes that
have been drilled or planned to be drilled on the Santa Barbara
deposit. Two drills are currently drilling holes DSB-24 and DSB-25.
Commentary
Drill hole DSB-22 intersected almost continuous gold and copper
mineralization over 484 meters from 190m to 674m grading an average of
0.80 g/t gold and 0.13% Cu over the interval. The Santa Barbara South
Zone remains open to the north, east and south. Porphyry gold-copper
mineralization is hosted by altered basaltic andesite intruded by
Jurassic intrusive stocks and dikes. Major structural orientations are
exhibited by steeply dipping intrusive contacts, porphyry B-type quartz
veins and faults striking northwest and northeast. The 40km long
Zamora Gold and Copper Belt in Southeastern Ecuador is host to
Ecuacorriente's Mirador, Panantza and San Carlos copper porphyry
deposits and Kinross's Fruta del Norte epithermal gold deposit of the
same age. The Company cautions that reference to the nearby deposits
is for information purposes only and there is no assurance that its
Condor gold and copper concessions will develop into economically
viable producing deposits.
Phase I Drill Program
The Santa Barbara gold - copper porphyry deposit is one of four targets
including two epithermal gold targets (Los Cuyes, and Soledad) in the
northern part of the Condor Gold and Copper concessions together with
the promising El Hito copper-molybdenum porphyry target located 5km
east of Santa Barbara that have been prioritized for resource expansion
drilling by the Company (see Company News Releases, January 30, 2013
and March 5, 2013 for recent drill results at Los Cuyes and El Hito).
Drilling at Santa Barbara continues with two drill rigs. The Company is
currently planning additional holes to extend mineralization to the
south and east of the current resource. Drill hole DSB-23 has been
completed and assay results are awaited.
Drilling completed on the Company's Condor Gold and Copper Project to
the end of March, 2013 totaled approximately 8,900 meters.
The Phase 1 Drill Program has been extended to approximately 13,000
meters and is scheduled to be completed by the end of May 2013.
Existing Resources
The Condor Gold Project contains a Measured & Indicated Mineral Resource
of 1.52 million ounces gold (within 50.4 Mt grading 0.94 g/t gold).
Additional Inferred Mineral Resources contain 1.28 million ounces gold
(within 28.4 Mt grading 1.4 g/t gold). The measured resource consists
of 54,000 ounces of gold (within 147.0 Mt grading 1.0 g/t gold) and the
indicated resources consist of 1.47 million ounces gold (within 50.3 Mt
grading 0.94 g/t). For more information, please see the Company's
resource table at www.ecuadorgoldandcopper.com or its Technical Report dated June 14, 2012 which is available under
the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.
Quality Assurance
The Company has implemented a quality assurance and quality control
program to ensure that the transport, sampling and analysis of all
samples is conducted in accordance with the best possible practices.
Drill core is transported from the drill by employees to the Company's
secure core logging facility at its camp where, after geotechnical and
geological logging, it is marked for sampling. The entire hole is
sampled and core samples are generally 2m in length, varying at
geological contacts to between 1.5m and 2.5m and are split in half by
EGX employees. One half is retained in a secure storage facility and
the other half is transported by EGX employees or a bonded courier to
ACME Labs' sample preparation facility in Cuenca, Ecuador where the
core sample is crushed so that 80% passes a 10 mesh screen and a 250g
split is pulverized so that 85% passes a 200 mesh screen. From Cuenca
ACME Labs ships the samples to their laboratory in Santiago, Chile for
analysis. The lab is ISO/IEC 17025:2005 (CAN-P-4E) certified. Where
appropriate, samples are analyzed for gold by 30-gm fire assay with an
AA finish and by gravimetric methods for assays over 10 ppm. Samples
are analyzed for silver and copper by ICP-ES after a four acid
digestion. For silver assays over 200 ppm, samples are analyzed using
ACME Labs 7AR method consisting of hot aqua regia digestion and ICP-ES
analysis. Copper assays over 10,000 ppm are re-analyzed using four acid
digestion with ICP-ES finish (ACME Labs 7TD method). ACME Labs are
independent from the Company.
Under the Company's QA-QC procedures, samples are submitted for
re-analysis based on their proximity to a certified reference standard
that returns a value greater than three standard deviations higher or
lower than the mean value for that standard. In addition, any two
consecutive reference standards falling outside the two standard
deviation threshold will be considered to have failed. Since every
twentieth sample is a reference standard, ten samples above and below a
failed standard will be re-analyzed. The same protocol will be applied
to duplicate samples considered to have unacceptably divergent gold
values. Periodically, random samples will be submitted to another
laboratory as an external check on the results provided by the primary
lab.
Qualified Person
Mit Tilkov, P.Geo., Vice-President Exploration of Ecuador Gold and
Copper Corp. is the qualified person, as defined by National Instrument
43-101, supervised the project field work, and is responsible for the
preparation of the technical information in this release.
Cautionary Note
The Company has not completed a preliminary economic assessment or
feasibility study of the Condor Gold Project under National Instrument
43-101, and there is no assurance that the exploration and subsequent
development operations of the Condor Gold Project will be economically
or technically viable.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider
(as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange)
accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Image with caption: "The attached map - Figure 1 shows the location of the drill holes that have been drilled or planned to be drilled on the Santa Barbara deposit. Two drills are currently drilling holes DSB-24 and DSB-25. (CNW Group/Ecuador Gold and Copper Corp.)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20130410_C4061_PHOTO_EN_25374.jpg
SOURCE: Ecuador Gold and Copper Corp.