{"id":1123334,"date":"2019-06-26T17:48:45","date_gmt":"2019-06-26T17:48:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=995034"},"modified":"2019-06-26T17:48:45","modified_gmt":"2019-06-26T17:48:45","slug":"lundin-gold-starts-mining-of-first-production-stope-at-fruta-del-norte","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1123334","title":{"rendered":"Lundin Gold starts mining of first production stope at Fruta del Norte"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Canada\u2019s Lundin Gold (TSX:LUG) has<br \/>\nbegun mining of the first production stope at its Fruta del Norte gold project<br \/>\nin Ecuador. <\/p>\n<div id='div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0'><script>googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0');});<\/script><\/div>\n<p>Construction of the process plant<br \/>\nand tailings facility continue to be on schedule, the Vancouver-based miner<br \/>\nsaid, with commissioning of the process plant to begin in the third quarter of<br \/>\nthis year.<\/p>\n<p>At the end of May, overall construction progress was 73% complete and 88% of the project\u2019s capital expenditure was already committed, the company\u2019s president and CEO, Ron Hochstein, <a href=\"http:\/\/files.newswire.ca\/1603\/20190625_Lundin_Gold.pdf\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">said in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote alignright\">\n<blockquote>\n<p>Lundin has been developing the asset for almost two years, following a 2016&nbsp;agreement with Ecuador\u2019s government<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Underground mine development reached 7.3 km as at May 31, compared to the targeted 7.1 km, while the processing plant reached 80% completion&nbsp;last month.<\/p>\n<p>Wet Commissioning of the initial<br \/>\nsystems is expected to start in early July and continue throughout the third<br \/>\nquarter of this year. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe majority of process plant<br \/>\noperations and maintenance staff have been hired and will participate in the<br \/>\ncommissioning process,\u201d the miner said.<\/p>\n<p>Lundin Gold, worth almost C$1.5 billion in Toronto, has been developing the asset for almost two years, following a 2016&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/mining.com\/ecuador-grants-lundin-key-permit-for-its-fruta-del-norte-gold-mine\/\" >agreement with Ecuador\u2019s government<\/a>&nbsp;that allowed it to move ahead with the project.<\/p>\n<p>The company acquired the project in 2015 for $240 million&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/mining.com\/kinross-gold-allegedly-trying-to-recover-ecuador-mine-losses-51340\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">from fellow Canadian miner Kinross Gold<\/a>&nbsp;(TSX:K) (NYSE:KGC), which had to halt operations after being unable to reach an agreement with authorities&nbsp;regarding the terms for developing&nbsp;the asset.<\/p>\n<p>The underground gold and silver<br \/>\nmine, which will be Ecuador\u2019s largest, contains six of Lundin\u2019s 29 mining<br \/>\nconcessions and covers 70,000 hectares of land.<\/p>\n<p>Discovered in 2006, Fruta del Norte is expected to<br \/>\nproduce 4.6 million ounces of gold over a 15 year mine life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Construction of the process plant and tailings facility continue to be on schedule, and commissioning of the process plant will begin in the third quarter of this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[369,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1123334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miningcom","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1123334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1123334"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1123334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1123586,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1123334\/revisions\/1123586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1123334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1123334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1123334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}