Ecuador Gold Files New 43-101 Technical Report for the Updated Mineral Resource Estimate of an Increase at the Condor Gold Pr...

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TORONTO, Nov. 29, 2013 /CNW/ - Ecuador Gold & Copper Corp. (TSXV: EGX), (the "Company" or "EGX") is pleased to report that it has filed on SEDAR its new current "NI 43-101 Technical Report on the Condor Gold and Copper Project located in Zamora, Ecuador", dated effective October 16, 2013 (the "Technical Report") in support of an updated mineral resource estimate for the Company's Condor Gold and Copper Project in the Zamora Gold and Copper Belt, Southeast Ecuador of approximately 6.4 million ounces in the Indicated category and approximately 2.1 million ounces in the Inferred category.

The Technical Report was prepared and is filed on SEDAR under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com in support of the updated mineral resource estimates announced in the Company's news release on October 16, 2013 (the "October News Release"). The following is a restatement of the resources announced in the Company's October News Release.

Highlights:

• The new mineral resource estimate at the Santa Barbara South Zone incorporates drill results from 11 additional drill holes totaling 6,985m drilled since May 2013.  The increased drill density and number of drill holes has resulted in an expanded resource with new Indicated resources and conversion of previously reported Inferred resources to the Indicated category.  Resources at Santa Barbara South now stand at 236.1 million tonnes at 0.57 g/t Au and 0.1% Cu (4.33 million ounces Au and 520.0 million lbs. Cu) in the Indicated category and 102 million tonnes at 0.50 g/t Au and 0.1% Cu (1.6 million ounces Au and 225 million lbs. Cu) in the Inferred category.
  
  
• Indicated resources at the Condor Gold Project now total 318.9 million tonnes at 0.62 g/t Au (6.365 million ounces Au) with a further 127.0 million tonnes at 0.52 g/t Au (2.067 million ounces Au) in the Inferred category at Santa Barbara South and North Zones, Los Cuyes, Soledad and Enma. (For details of the previously reported resources see the Company's technical report prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 Standards for Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") dated effective July 23, 2013 and filed on SEDAR on September 5, 2013, available at www.sedar.com).
  
  
• The El Hito copper porphyry project, situated 5km east of Santa Barbara hosts an additional Inferred copper resource of 161 million tonnes of 0.31% Cu (1.1 billion lbs. Cu).  For further details and a description of El Hito, see the Technical Report at www.sedar.com.
  
  
• Continuing increases of the gold resources at the Santa Barbara deposit confirm the emergence of Santa Barbara as the Company's flagship project in Ecuador.

The new resource estimates were calculated by Phil Jones of Al Maynard and Associates Pty Ltd. in Perth, Australia and incorporate drill results from 11 new drill holes (6,985m) drilled since May 2013 by EGX, and all assays up to the end of August 2013.  The Company's updated resource table for Santa Barbara is presented below in Table 1 with previously released resources summarized in Table 2.  Al Maynard and Associates Pty Ltd. were also responsible for the previous resource estimates calculated in the Company's NI 43-101 technical report dated effective July 23, 2013 and filed on SEDAR on September 5, 2013, available at www.sedar.com.  Location maps and plans with simplified geology, collar locations and drill hole traces are available for reference on the Company's website at www.ecuadorgoldandcopper.com.

Glenn Laing, President and CEO of Ecuador Gold and Copper Corp. comments:

"The newly updated resource estimate at our Condor Gold Project represents a substantial increase in the Company's resource base and in particular at the Santa Barbara South Zone.  We are extremely encouraged by the addition of new gold resources at the Santa Barbara South Zone and the upgrade in the quality of the resource estimate to now include Indicated gold resources. The Company has completed 17,321 meters of new drilling on the Condormining concessions between August 2012 and the end of August 2013.  EGX boasts close to 2 million ounces of Indicated gold resources in our epithermal gold deposits at Los Cuyes and Soledad in the north and in the south 4.33 million ounces of indicated gold resources at Santa Barbara plus an additional 1.745 million ounces of inferred gold resources at Santa Barbara. We also have a further Inferred resource of 500,000 tonnes of copper (1.1 billion pounds) at El Hito in our resource inventory.  Our Condor Gold Project continues to meet and exceed our expectations and we believe it is proving to be one of the most exciting advanced exploration projects in South America.  We estimate our exploration costs of discovery to be in the order of $2.00 per ounce of gold in 2012 and 2013."

Table 1: SANTA BARBARA GOLD-COPPER PORPHYRY RESOURCE BREAKDOWN
		Tonnes (000 t)	Grade Au (g/t)	Ag (g/t)	Cu (%)	Au (000 oz)	Ag (000 oz)	Cu ( lbs)
GOLD RESOURCE
Indicated:
Santa Barbara South Zone	*	236,100	0.57	0.85	0.10	4,330	-	520 million
Total Indicated GOLD		236,100	0.57			4,330	-
GOLD RESOURCE
Inferred:
Santa Barbara South Zone	*	102,000	0.5	0.9	0.1	1,600	-	225 million
Santa Barbara North Zone		5,000	0.9			145	-
Total Inferred GOLD		107,000	0.52			1,745	-

Notes:
1)		The mineral resource estimate has been completed pursuant to NI 43-101.  Mr. Phil Jones is an independent Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101 and its companion policy NI 43-101CP.  New resource estimates at Santa Barbara South Zone are in bold and shown with an asterisk (*).
2)		The definitions of Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resources reported here are as defined in the CIM Standards on Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves adopted by the CIM Council, as amended.
3)		Inferred Resource estimates have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence and economic and legal feasibility.  It cannot be assumed that all or any part of an Inferred Mineral Resource will ever be upgraded to a higher category. Under NI 43-101, estimates of Inferred Mineral Resources may not form the basis of feasibility or pre-feasibility studies except for a preliminary economic assessment or scoping study.
4)		Sums may not add up due to rounding as all quantities are rounded to the appropriate number of significant figures.
5)		Tonnage and grades are in metric units.  Contained gold and silver ounces are reported as troy ounces, contained copper as imperial pounds.
6)		Gold resources at Santa Barbara have been calculated using a 0.25 g/t Au cutoff grade.  Inverse distance cubed (ID3) algorithms using wide search ellipses and confined to geological wireframe controls were used.  Block size estimated is 20 x 20 x 10m.
7)		Maximum search distances used to calculate Indicated resources are 100m at Santa Barbara, while Inferred resources were calculated using maximum distances of 100-200m from the block being estimated.
8)		The new calculations of Indicated and Inferred Resource shown above are based on results from 28 diamond drill holes at Santa Barbara (13,207m).

Table 2: CONDOR GOLD AND COPPER PROJECT  RESOURCE BREAKDOWN (Incorporating Updated Santa Barbara South Zone Resources)
		Tonnes (000 t)	Grade Au (g/t)	Ag (g/t)	Cu (%)	Au (000 oz)	Ag (000 oz)	Cu ( lbs)
GOLD RESOURCE
Indicated:
Los Cuyes		46,848	0.82	6.19		1,235	9,323
Soledad		34,900	0.63	7.21		707	8,090
Enma		1,005	2.88	32.83		93	1,061
Santa Barbara South Zone	*	236,100	0.57	0.85	0.1	4,330	-
Total Indicated GOLD		318,853	0.62	2.43		6,365	18,474
GOLD RESOURCE
Inferred:
Soledad		20,000	0.5	6.93		322	4,456
Santa Barbara South Zone	*	102,000	0.5	0.90	0.1	1,600	-
Santa Barbara North Zone		5,000	0.9			145	-
Total Inferred GOLD		127,000	0.52	1.09		2,067	4,456
COPPER RESOURCE
Inferred - El Hito:		161,000			0.31			1.1 billion
Total Inferred COPPER at El Hito		161,000			0.31			1.1 billion

Notes:
1)		All mineral resource estimates shown above have been completed pursuant to NI 43-101.  Mr. Phil Jones is an independent Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101 and its companion policy NI 43-101CP.  New resource estimates at Santa Barbara South Zone are in bold and shown with an asterisk (*).
2)		Details of previous calculations and resource estimates at Los Cuyes, Soledad, Enma, Santa Barbara North Zone and El Hito are reported in detail in the Company's NI 43-101 technical report dated effective July 23, 2013 and filed on SEDAR on September 5, 2013, available at www.sedar.com.
3)		The definitions of Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resources reported here are as defined in the CIM Standards on Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves adopted by the CIM Council, as amended.
4)		Inferred Resource estimates have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence and economic and legal feasibility.  It cannot be assumed that all or any part of an Inferred Mineral Resource will ever be upgraded to a higher category. Under NI 43-101, estimates of Inferred Mineral Resources may not form the basis of feasibility or pre-feasibility studies except for a preliminary economic assessment or scoping study.
5)		Sums may not add up due to rounding as all quantities are rounded to the appropriate number of significant figures.
6)		Tonnage and grades are in metric units.  Contained gold and silver ounces are reported as troy ounces, contained copper as imperial pounds.
7)		Gold resources have been calculated using a 0.25 g/t Au cutoff grade while the copper resources at El Hito are reported above a 0.2% Cu cutoff grade. Indicated and Inferred copper resources for Santa Barbara South are shown in Table 1, above.

Santa Barbara North Zone Drilling

On November 5^th, 2013 EGX reported that it has mobilized two drill rigs to the Company's Condor Gold and Copper Project to execute a 3,000 meter drill program that will target expansion of resources around the Santa Barbara North Zone, approximately 1,000 meters to the northeast of the mineralized centre of the Santa Barbara South Zone.

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. The QA/QC program has been described for each previous release of drill hole results on the project (see recent news releases at www.ecuadorgoldandcopper.com).  In preparation for the resource estimate, the Company hired independent consultants to review the QA/QC program.  Further details are included in the Technical Report posted at www.sedar.com.

Qualified Person

Mit Tilkov, P.Geo., Vice-President Exploration of Ecuador Gold and Copper Corp. is a qualified person, as defined by NI 43-101, supervised the project field work, and is responsible for the preparation of the technical information in this news release.

Phil Jones, BAppSc (Geol), MAIG, MAusIMM, of Al Maynard and Associates Pty Ltd. prepared the mineral resource estimate.  He is an independent Qualified Person, as required by NI 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the contents of this news release.

Cautionary Note

The Company has not completed a preliminary economic assessment or feasibility study of the Condor Gold Project under NI 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.

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