Condor Gold plc was admitted to AIM in May 2006 and dual listed on the TSX in January 2018. The Company is a gold exploration and development company with a focus on Nicaragua.
On 25 October 2021 Condor announced the filing of a Preliminary Economic Assessment Technical Report (“PEA”) for its La India Project, Nicaragua on SEDAR https://www.sedar.com. The highlight of the technical study is a post-tax, post upfront capital expenditure NPV of US$418 million, with an IRR of 54% and 12 month pay-back period, assuming a US$1,700 per oz gold price, with average annual production of 150,000 oz gold per annum for the initial 9 years of gold production. The open pit mine schedules have been optimised from designed pits, bringing higher grade gold forward resulting in average annual production of 157,000 oz gold in the first 2 years from open pit material and underground mining funded out of cashflow.
In August 2018, the Company announced that the Ministry of the Environment in Nicaragua had granted the Environmental Permit (“EP”) for the development, construction and operation of a processing plant with capacity to process up to 2,800 tonnes per day at its wholly-owned La India gold Project (“La India Project”). The EP is considered the master permit for mining operations in Nicaragua. Condor has purchased a new SAG Mill, which has mainly arrived in Nicaragua. Site clearance and preparation is at an advanced stage.
Environmental Permits were granted in April and May 2020 for the Mestiza and America open pits respectively, both located close to La India. The Mestiza open pit hosts 92 Kt at a grade of 12.1 g/t gold (36,000 oz contained gold) in the Indicated Mineral Resource category and 341 Kt at a grade of 7.7 g/t gold (85,000 oz contained gold) in the Inferred Mineral Resource category. The America open pit hosts 114 Kt at a grade of 8.1 g/t gold (30,000 oz) in the Indicated Mineral Resource category and 677 Kt at a grade of 3.1 g/t gold (67,000 oz) in the Inferred Mineral Resource category. Following the permitting of the Mestiza and America open pits, together with the La India Open Pit Condor has 1.12 M oz gold open pit Mineral Resources permitted for extraction.
Pre-Feasibility Study
Towards the end of 2013 SRK Consulting (UK) Limited was commissioned to undertake a PFS and included expansion scenarios to evaluate whether La India Project could support an open pit only mine for several years, with underground development funded at a later date out of cash flow. The study considered three different scenarios: a prefeasibility study on open pit mining at La India only; an expansion scenario ("Expansion Scenario A") with open pit mining on La India , America and Central Breccia; and a further expansion scenario ("Expansion Scenario B") with open pit mining at La India, America and Central Breccia and underground mining at La India and America. In November 2014 the PFS was completed.
- 0.8Mtpa PFS La India Open Pit only demonstrates a robust and economically viable base case for the project. The study envisages Open pit mining of 6.9Mt of ore at 3.0g/t gold with a 91.0% recovery for 614k oz gold production. The Life of Mine (“LOM”) stripping ratio is 13.6 t:t over a mine schedule of 8 years producing 94.5Mt of waste. The mining rate will be 0.8Mtpa over 8 year mine life feeding a 2,300 tpd plant for an average annual production of 79,300 oz over the 7 years of maximum production. The LOM all-in sustaining costs are US$690/oz, the capital expenditure is US$110M, the Internal Rate of Return (“IRR”) is 22% and the Net Present Value (“NPV”) is US$92M.
- 1.2Mtpa Expansion Scenario A, La India Open Pit + Feeder Pits. Open pit mining of 9.5Mt of ore at 2.8g/t gold with a recovery of 91.0% for La India, 94.5% for America and 87.0% for Central Breccia, to return 774k oz gold production. The LOM stripping ratio is 12.5 t:t over a mine schedule of 8 years producing 118.2Mt of waste. The mining rate will be 1.2Mtpa feeding a 2,800 tpd plant. The LOM all-in sustaining costs are US$685/oz..
- 1.6Mtpa Expansion Scenario B, La India Open Pit + Feeder Pits + Underground. Open pit and underground mining of 13.0Mt of ore at 3.2g/t gold with a recovery of 91.0% for La India, 94.5% for America and 87.0% for Central Breccia, for 1.2M oz gold production over a 12 year mine life. The open pit component will be completed in 8 years with a LOM stripping ratio is 12.4 t:t producing 118.2Mt of waste. The mining rate will be 1.6Mtpa for the first 8 year mine life feeding a 2,800 tpd plant. After Year 8 mining will switch to a lower rate extracting underground ore only for a further 4 years. Underground mining will use cut-and-fill method assuming 5% dilution and 95% mining recovery. The LOM all-in sustaining costs are US$697/oz.
