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VANCOUVER,
March 5, 2013 /CNW/ - Ecuador Gold
& Copper Corp. (TSX-V: EGX), (the "Company" or
"EGX") is pleased to announce assay results from drill holes
DEH-06, DEH-07 and DEH-08 at its El Hito copper porphyry deposit.
The El Hito deposit is located within the Santa Barbara Sector of
the Company's 8,300 hectare Condor gold and copper concessions in
the Zamora Gold and Copper Belt, Southeast Ecuador. Significant results
were returned from drill hole DEH-07 where 244m of 0.51% Cu and
1.28 g/t Ag were encountered near surface from 8m to 252m.
This included oxide mineralization from 8m to 84m (76m) of 0.79% Cu
and 1.58 g/t Ag. Drill holes DEH-06 and DEH-08 were drilled to 580m
and 550m respectively and encountered porphyry copper
mineralization from top to bottom.
The Company has now drilled five drill holes at
El Hito, part of the previously announced 10,000 meter Phase I
drill program on the Company's extensive Condor Gold property.
Results are pending for DEH-09. DEH-05 confirmed the potential for
a significant porphyry copper deposit at El Hito (see table below
and Company news release February 19,
2013) and DEH-07 confirms the potential for higher grade
zones within the larger porphyry copper deposit. Drill hole
DEH-06 returned values of 0.27% Cu and 0.93 g/t Ag over 580m
starting at surface while DEH-08 encountered 518m of 0.30% Cu and
0.98 Ag starting at 32m. 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 to
date.
Table 1: Summary of Results from El
Hito Drill Holes (length weighted average assays, uncapped)
Drill Hole |
From
(m) |
To
(m) |
Interval
(m) |
Cu (%) |
Ag (g/t) |
DEH-05 |
8.0 |
162.0 |
154.00 |
0.32 |
1.08 |
DEH-05 |
283.15 |
315.0 |
31.85 |
0.42 |
1.20 |
DEH-05 |
478.0 |
707.0 |
229.00 |
0.40 |
0.71 |
including |
478.0 |
614.6 |
136.60 |
0.36 |
1.49 |
and |
631.45 |
673.0 |
41.55 |
0.73 |
3.20 |
DEH-06 |
0.0 |
580.0 |
580.00 |
0.27 |
0.93 |
including |
228.0 |
580.0 |
352.00 |
0.31 |
1.16 |
including |
310.0 |
428.0 |
118.00 |
0.34 |
1.08 |
DEH-07 |
8.0 |
252.0 |
244.00 |
0.51 |
1.28 |
including |
8.0 |
84.0 |
76.00 |
0.79 |
1.58 |
DEH-07 |
252.0 |
750.0 |
498.0 |
0.16 |
0.59 |
including |
466.0 |
482.0 |
16.00 |
0.43 |
2.89 |
DEH-08 |
32.0 |
550.0 |
518.00 |
0.30 |
0.98 |
including |
202.0 |
536.0 |
334.00 |
0.33 |
1.08 |
- g/t = grams per metric tonne.
- The true width of down hole interval lengths are estimated
to be approximately 50% to 60%.
Commentary
Three of four drill holes for which the Company
has results to-date (DEH-05, DEH-06 and DEH-08) have intersected
relatively continuous copper mineralization over lengths of 500m
and up to 700m from near surface, and two holes (DEH-05 and DEH-07)
have encountered grades of 0.4% to 0.5% Cu over at least 200m with
highest grade sections averaging up to 0.7% Cu. Porphyry
copper mineralization is associated with a Late Jurassic dioritic
intrusive complex hosted by Jurassic age plutonic rocks of the
Zamora batholith. Two major structural orientations are exhibited
by steeply dipping intrusive contacts, quartz veins,
sulfide-mineral veinlets, and faults striking north and northwest.
The majority of the diorite complex is moderately to strongly
quartz-sericite-pyrite (phyllic) altered, overprinting potassic
alteration at depth. The 40km long Zamora
Copper Gold Belt in Southeastern
Ecuador is host to Ecuacorriente's Mirador, Panantza and San
Carlos Cu 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.
10,000 Meter Phase I Drill Program
El Hito is one of four targets including two
epithermal gold deposits: the Los Cuyes deposit (where previously
released results on 29 January 2013
showed 149.0m @ 0.84 g/t Au and 9.0 g/t Ag including 14.1m @
5.00g/t Au and 39.0 g/t Ag); the Soledad deposit in the
northern part of the gold and copper concessions of the Condor Gold
Project; and the Santa Barbara deposit (located within the Santa
Barbara Sector of the Condor Gold project), a gold-copper porphyry
south of the epithermal district and 5 km west of the El Hito
deposit (which is also located within the Santa Barbara Sector of
the Condor Gold Project).
EGX has completed five holes at the El Hito
copper porphyry target and is now planning seven follow up holes at
the Santa Barbara porphyry Au-Cu target to the west where
previously released results showed 420m of 0.571 g/t Au including
101m grading 1.017 g/t Au (see Company News Release, October 17, 2012 and February 26, 2013).
Drilling completed to the end of February, 2013
totaled approximately 7,700 meters and new holes are in progress at
Santa Barbara with two drill rigs currently turning.
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 147,000 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 is 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.