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TORONTO,
April 24, 2013 /CNW/ - Ecuador Gold
& Copper Corp. (TSX-V: EGX), (the "Company" or
"EGX") is pleased to announce assay results from drill hole
DSB-23 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-23 returned significant results within a continuously
mineralized 496 meter interval starting at 204 meters that averaged
0.90 g/t Au and 0.12% Cu ending in mineralization at 700 meters.
The mineralized zone includes 144 meters averaging 1.03 g/t Au and
0.15% Cu and an additional 82 meters averaging 1.16g/t Au and 0.15%
Cu. A 40 meter section between 310-350 meters averaged 1.42
g/t Au and 0.18% Cu. Assay results are shown in the table
below.
DSB-23 is the fifth 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 700m at
-65 degrees, parallel to and collared approximately 70 meters
northeast of DSB-22 where previously released results showed 484
meters of 0.80 g/t Au including 266 meters grading 0.99 g/t Au (see
Company News Release, April 10,
2013). The Santa Barbara South Zone currently hosts an
NI 43-101 previously reported 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-23
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 |
and |
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 |
and |
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 |
- 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 drill holes that
have been completed by EGX. Two drills are currently drilling holes
DSB-26 and DSB-27.
Commentary
Drill hole DSB-23 intersected almost continuous
gold and copper mineralization over 496 meters from 204m to 700m
grading an average of 0.90 g/t gold and 0.12% 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 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 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 holes DSB-24 and 25 have been completed and
assay results are awaited.
Drilling completed on the Company's Condor Gold
and Copper Project to 23 April, 2013
totaled approximately 11,000 meters. The Phase 1 Drill
Program totaling approximately 13,000 meters 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 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.
Image with caption: "Figure 1 - Location of drill holes that
have been completed by EGX. Two drills are currently drilling holes
DSB-26 and DSB-27. (CNW Group/Ecuador Gold and Copper Corp.)".
Image available at:
http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20130424_C8405_PHOTO_EN_25970.jpg