What does the company do?
Condor Gold PLC (LON:CNR) is a specialist gold exploration and development company run by seasoned mining professional Mark Child. Also on the board are serial entrepreneurs Jim Mellon and Ian Stalker, who both bring a wealth of industry connections and expertise.
What does it own?
Condor’s principal asset is the La India Gold Project in Nicaragua, which has an existing resource totalling 2.3mln ounces of gold. Of that nearly 1.12M ounces has been modelled as open-pittable and is permitted for extraction.
The company also owns the Estrella, Rio Luno gold projects, also in Nicaragua.
How it’s doing
As of the end of September 2020, Condor had GBP5.5mln in the bank.
The company is in the design phase for construction, with particular focus at the moment on tailings and water retention ponds.
A final 4,000 metres of drilling has just been commenced.
The plan is to get the La India project shovel-ready by end 2020.
Director Jim Mellon was a big buyer of the shares in 2020.
What the boss says: Mark Child, chief executive
“During the third quarter 2020 Condor Gold continued to de-risk La India project, advancing the project to a shovel-ready status. The company has purchased the vast majority, over 93%, of the surface rights within the permitted La India open pit mine site infrastructure area. The project is proceeding as if the company owns 100% of the land as the company is confident of securing the balance. Geotechnical drilling is currently underway on the embankment locations for the tailings storage facility and water retention reservoir together with some 58 test pits including a dozen on the location of the processing plant. Several engineering studies are being taken beyond that of a feasibility study to a final design for construction. In summary, the Project is being fast tracked to production. In-filling drilling programmes in the open pits have been designed, drilling is expected to commence in the near future.”
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What do the brokers think?
Broker SP Angel has valued Condor at US$122mln, allowing for completion and execution risk.
Condor Gold is developing the La India gold mine in Nicaragua within a large, relatively underexplored, licence area with a history of previous gold production dating from the 1930s to the mid-1980s.
Initial expectations are for the production of around 100,000 ounces per year of gold from open-pit mining of the main La India vein system, and nearby high-grade satellite mineralisation, the broker said.
Production at this level would place Condor Gold among the five largest gold producers on London’s AIM market.
Read: Condor Gold PLC – Permitted Gold Mine with Near-term Production Potential
