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TORONTO, June 13, 2013 /CNW/ -Ecuador Gold & Copper Corp. (TSX-V: EGX), (the "Company" or "EGX") is pleased to announce further long gold intercepts at its flagship Santa Barbara Au-Cu porphyry deposit located within the Company's 8,300 hectare Condor Gold and Copper Project in the Zamora Gold and Copper Belt, Southeast Ecuador. Assay results from drill holes DSB-26 and DSB-27 have now been received. Drill hole DSB-27 (drilled to 772m) returned one of the longest mineralized intercepts to date averaging 0.68 g/t Au and 0.12% Cu over 476 meters from 266m. This includes 310m that averaged 0.80 g/t Au and 0.13% Cu and 144m at 0.89 g/t Au and 0.13% Cu. DSB-27 was collared 100m southeast of DSB-23 that returned 496m of 0.90 g/t Au and 0.13% Cu (EGX News Release April 24, 2013). DSB-26 is a step out hole drilled 150m north of the known resource in the Santa Barbara South Zone that has encountered 146m of 0.90 g/t Au and 0.12% Cu starting at 204m. This hole was located 275m northeast of EGX hole DSB-19 where previous results showed 420m of 0.57 g/t Au and 0.08% Cu (EGX News Release October 17, 2012). The Company has completed four more holes at Santa Barbara to follow up on recent success in extending the mineralized zone, particularly to the south and east. Assays are awaited for four drill holes DSB-28 to DSB-31. EGX results at Santa Barbara are summarized in the table further below.
With the completion of drill holes DSB-28 and DSB-29 (assays pending) at Santa Barbara, the Company completed its previously announced 13,000m Phase I drill program and has commissioned Al Maynard and Associates of Perth, Australia to prepare an updated NI 43-101 technical report to update drill results and recalculate resources. This report is expected to be completed by mid July, 2013 while drilling continues at Santa Barbara with two drill rigs.
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 and the promising El Hito copper-molybdenum porphyry target located 5km east of Santa Barbara. These four target areas have been prioritized for resource expansion drilling by the Company (see EGX News Releases, January 30, 2013 for recent drill results at Los Cuyes and May 22, 2013 for summary of recent drilling at Soledad and El Hito). Project locations and drill hole plan maps can be found in the project map section on the Company's web site at www.ecuadorgoldandcopper.com and project descriptions and current resources in the June 14, 2012 Technical Report at www.sedar.com.
Santa Barbara
The Santa Barbara Au-Cu porphyry deposit, which shows exceptional promise, is emerging as the Company's flagship deposit. Thirteen drill holes have been drilled to extend mineralization to the north, south and east of the current resource. The table below has been updated to reflect the results from drill holes DSB-26 and 27 while results for DSB-28 to DSB-31 are pending. The company has commissioned an updated resource calculation for Santa Barbara that is expected to be complete mid July, 2013.
The Santa Barbara South Zone currently hosts an 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-26 and DSB-27 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 |
| DSB-23 |
204.00 |
700.00 |
496.00 |
0.90 |
0.13 |
1.07 |
| including |
248.00 |
392.00 |
144.00 |
1.03 |
0.15 |
1.23 |
| including |
310.00 |
350.00 |
40.00 |
1.42 |
0.18 |
1.66 |
| and |
534.00 |
616.00 |
82.00 |
1.16 |
0.15 |
1.36 |
| DSB-24 |
190.00 |
482.00 |
292.00 |
0.38 |
0.08 |
0.49 |
| including |
190.00 |
252.00 |
62.00 |
0.52 |
0.07 |
0.61 |
| Including |
358.00 |
482.00 |
124.00 |
0.47 |
0.09 |
0.59 |
| and |
552.00 |
590.00 |
38.00 |
0.49 |
0.12 |
0.65 |
DSB-25
|
244.00 |
456.00 |
212.00 |
0.55 |
0.11 |
0.70 |
| including |
302.00 |
430.00 |
128.00 |
0.67 |
0.13 |
0.84 |
| including |
380.00 |
430.00 |
50.00 |
0.79 |
0.12 |
0.95 |
| including |
380.00 |
402.00 |
22.00 |
1.16 |
0.15 |
1.36 |
| DSB-26 |
204.00 |
350.00 |
146.00 |
0.90 |
0.12 |
1.06 |
| including |
216.00 |
304.00 |
88.00 |
1.17 |
0.14 |
1.36 |
| and |
402.00 |
473.00 |
71.00 |
0.60 |
0.10 |
0.73 |
DSB-27
|
266.00 |
742.00 |
476.00 |
0.68 |
0.12 |
0.84 |
| including |
370.00 |
680.00 |
310.00 |
0.80 |
0.13 |
0.97 |
| including |
370.00 |
514.00 |
144.00 |
0.89 |
0.13 |
1.06 |
| including |
368.00 |
444.00 |
76.00 |
0.95 |
0.14 |
1.14 |
- 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 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.
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.
These existing resources were calculated by Al Maynard and Associates in June 2012.
Quality Assurance
The Company has implemented a quality assurance and quality control program to ensure that the transport, sampling and analysis of all samples are 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.
SOURCE: Ecuador Gold and Copper Corp.
