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(Alliance News) - Condor Gold PLC on Thursday said it is progressing with the permitting process at La India project, Nicaragua.
In August last year, Condor received an environmental permit to construct and operate a new mine at its La India project. The permit contained certain conditions to be satisfied to allow construction to commence within 18 months of the grant.
On Thursday, the company said the land acquisition for the mine site infrastructure has not been completed in the required timeframe, and the final engineering designs are not anticipated to be completed in their entirety in accordance with the required timetable due to the political situation in Nicaragua.
Accordingly, the company said it will be seeking, under the terms of the permit, an extension of the timeline to complete the conditions of the permit.
The exploration and development company said it is making good progress with the completion of two environmental impact assessments, which will be submitted to the Ministry of Environment & Natural Resource in the second half of 2019.
The AIM-listed company said it plans to apply for environmental permits to install the high grade Mestiza and America satellite feeder pits, which have the potential to increase annual production from open pit material by 50% to 120,000 ounces of gold per year for a seven-year life of mine.
Upon completion of the permitting of the two feeder pits, one million ounces of gold of mineral resource in the Indicated & Inferred category will be permitted for extraction, producing 800,000 ounces of gold, Condor said.
The stock was trading 7.0% lower on Thursday afternoon at 18.00 pence a share in London.
