Nicaragua-focused Condor Gold (LON:CNR) saw losses
narrow in the three months ended on Sep. 30 compared to the same
period last year as it’s getting close to de-risking its flagship La India gold
project, north of capital Managua.
The miner logged a pre-tax loss for the period of £316,125 about 2.5% lower than the £324,349 loss registered a year before. This was almost entirely due to a funding campaign that allowed Condor Gold to raise £4.04 million (about $5.2m) during the period through a private placement of new ordinary shares.
The company, which fully permitted the project in
August last year, said the primary use of the proceeds was to meet
conditions of the environmental permit ruling the construction and operation
of an open pit mine at La India concession.
Part of the funds were used to buy the land required for mine
site infrastructure, engineering reviews ahead of a construction decision and
completion of 18 technical studies required for permitting two
high-grade satellite feeder pits.
The America and Mestiza pits located about 2km and 4km,
respectively, from La India’s processing plant complement the main open pit. They
are expected to increase open pit production by 50% to 120,000 ounces of gold
annually during a seven-year mine life.
The decision to seek permits for the two satellite pits was
based on a January updated mineral resource estimate for its
fully permitted La India.
The plan is to begin by mining those “mini pits” within
the larger, permitted one and truck that ore to a nearby processing plant, chairman
and chief executive officer,, Mark Child told MINING.com earlier this year.
During the period, the government of Nicaragua granted Condor Gold the 132.1 km2 Los Cerritos exploration and exploitation concession, which expanded the La India Project concession area by 29% to a total of 587.7 km2.
Condor Gold initially staked concessions in Nicaragua,
Central America’s largest country, in 2006. Since then, mining has
significantly taken off in the country due to the arrival of foreign companies
with the cash and knowledge to tap into its reserves.