Aurelian samples high grade at Condor (November 03, 2003)

Vancouver — Sampling at the Condor gold project in southeastern Ecuador has produced some eyebrow-raising assay results.

Aurelian Resources (ARU-V) has been sampling and mapping the Aguas Mesas Sur 3 pit in preparation for diamond drilling. Chip samples yielded 72 grams gold per tonne gold over 8 metres (true width: 6.8 metres), including an impressive 330 grams gold over 1 metre.

“We’ve got a tiger by the tail and aren’t letting go,” says Aurelian President Patrick Anderson. “The results from the Aguas Mesas South mine face show us that the robust grades of the system are repeatable at depths of up to twenty metres below surface. We’re beginning to see great results in the third dimension, which we’ll be following up with diamond drilling.”

The two highest samples, 170211 and 170212, returned 107.5 grams gold and 330 grams gold, respectively, and were subject to re-assaying. The check values returned 109 grams gold and 326 grams gold.

The samples were prepared by ALS Chemex at its lab in Quito, then sent to Vancouver where the gold was analyzed by 30-gram aliquot fire assay with ICP-AES instrumental finish. Samples yielding greater than 10 parts per million gold were submitted to 30-gram fire assay with gravimetric finish.

Previously, material from the Aguas Mesa pit averaged 63.5 grams gold over 2.8 metres and 92.03 grams gold over 2.9 metres. Recent blasting in the pit wall exposed more quartz vein material.

The most recent samples were taken across a milky white-to-light-grey, fractured and partly brecciated quartz vein. The vein has a “mesothermal appearance,” is at least 7.5 metres thick, and dips steeply to the northeast. Each of the 14 samples weighed between 3 and 5 kg and consisted of chips collected every 5-10 cm along an interval 1 metre long.

Six of the samples were taken where the vein is perched on the steep side wall of the pit in a near-vertical sense. The remaining eight were taken horizontally across the vein in a tunnel 20 metres below surface that crosscuts and terminates in vein material. The tunnel is 30 off from being perpendicular to the vein, so the true thickness of the last eight samples is about 0.85 metre.

Part of the pit wall has collapsed since the samples were taken, and artisanal miners at the pit are hand-excavating the rubble. However, the pit is about 20 metres deep and probably near the end of its life unless the walls are substantially pushed back.