Condor Gold Regulatory News (CNR)

23 Sep 2009 11:18



23rd September 2009 

CONDOR RESOURCES PLC

UNAUDITED INTERIM RESULTS

FOR THE SIX MONTHS TO 30 JUNE 2009

Condor Resources plc ("Condor" "Group" or the "Company"), the AIM listed Central American gold and silver exploration company, announces its results for the interim period to 30th June 2009.

HIGHLIGHTS

Condor completed a Share Exchange with Grafton Resources Investments Limited (the "Fund") and issued 140m new ordinary shares at 1 pence each and accepts shares in the Fund worth £1.4m.

Condor was granted 100 percent ownership of the Santa Barbara Concession which is contiguous with Condor's 100 percent owned Cacao Concession, and includes two known gold mineral anomalies believed to represent outcrops of the Cacao structure up to 4 kilometres along strike of the Cacao Resource.

Condor terminated the San Albino-Murra Concession option agreement because the US$250,000 option payment required to convert the concession to a joint venture was not considered a justifiable use of funds.

Condor has continued lodging applications for selected high quality concessions with known gold mineralisation as they became available in Nicaragua in order to build-up an attractive portfolio.

All operations in El Salvador and Nicaragua continued to operate on a care and maintenance basis while Condor seeks projects which would geographically diversify operations and reduce dependence on the risks of operating in El Salvador.

POST PERIOD HIGHLIGHTS

Condor has held discussions with the new Minister of the Economy in El Salvador and several other high ranking government officials to try and progress its projects in the country.

CURRENT (INC. POST PERIOD) GLOBAL JORC INFERRED RESOURCE

Note that tonnage and grade are rounded to two significant figures, contained gold to nearest thousand  ounces, and contained silver to nearest ten thousand ounces.

CONDOR RESOURCES PLC

CHAIRMANS STATEMENT

FOR THE SIX MONTHS TO 30 JUNE 2009

Dear Shareholder,

I am pleased to present Condor's unaudited interim report for the 6 month financial period to 30th June 2009.  The Group's JORC Resources remain unchanged compared to the figures stated in the 2008 audited annual report and accounts announced on 25th June 2009. The Group has 788,000 ounces of gold and 22,380,000 ounces of silver to a JORC Inferred Resource; over 95% of the Group's JORC resource is in the Republic of El Salvador (El Salvador). The operations in both El Salvador and Nicaragua remain on a care and maintenance basis principally because for 2½ years the Ministry of the Environment (MARN) in El Salvador has withheld environmental permits to drill.

The operating loss for the 6 month period was £217,451, which is flattered by a foreign exchange gain of £144,407. The decrease of cash and cash equivalents was £448,249 of which, just over £200,000 was spent on legal, broker and NOMAD advisory fees directly relating to the Board's defence of a hostile offer for the Company and a Share Exchange. During the period the Company was simultaneously subject to a requisition to remove certain Directors and an unsolicited approach which turned into a conditional, hostile all-share offer.  The Board had good reason to believe that the same parties were behind both actions and decided that it was in the best interest of shareholders for the Company to reject the hostile offer and to continue with a planned Share Exchange with Grafton Resources Investments Limited (the "Fund").  

On 12th June 2009 shareholders voted 165.4m in favour of and 5m against the Share Exchange transaction with the Fund. The net result is that Condor issued 140m new ordinary shares to the Fund at 1p per share, a premium to the then share price and the hostile offer price of 0.45p per share, for a total consideration of £1.4m and in return Condor acquired £1.4m worth of shares in the Fund at its 29th May 2009 net asset value. Post the transaction, the Fund holds 29.7% of Condor and Condor has a current asset in the form of shares in the Fund which can be sold and used for working capital requirements. Further details on the Fund can be found at www.graftonresources.net

El Salvador elected a new President, Mauricio Funes, who took charge of a new government on 1st June 2009. In mid August 2009, Condor and other exploration companies held a meeting with Dr. Hector Dada Hirezi the new Minister of the Economy and several prominent members of MARN and Department of Mines. The challenge facing the exploration companies in El Salvador is to counter balance the emotional hype put forward by the well funded anti-mining, anti-globalisation groups. Condor will take a lead role and put forward the facts that with the latest technologies and best practice, mining can be conducted in a safe, socially responsibly and environmentally secure manner as it is in North America and Australia. There are a number of high level meetings scheduled over the coming months aimed at educating government officials and explaining the benefits of mining. The policy of the recently elected President and new government towards exploration and mining remains unclear, but at least there are signs that they are actively reviewing the situation.

The strategy in Nicaragua is to acquire 100% ownership of advanced stage concessions that become available and accumulate an attractive portfolio. Condor announced on 6 May 2009 it has been granted the Santa Barbara concession, adjacent to the wholly owned Cacao concession, which hosts a 41,000 oz gold JORC Resource. There are a further 7 concessions under application.

The outlook for Condor depends on three factors. Firstly, the El Salvador Government's ultimate policy towards exploration and mining, for which we do not expect a conclusion this year. Secondly, the ability of Condor to accumulate an attractive package of concessions in Nicaragua, where Condor has applied for seven further concessions. Lastly, the ability of the Board to identify and negotiate further attractive acquisitions for the Company in order to diversify the geographical and political risk from El Salvador. 

Mark Child

Chairman

23rd September 2009

CONDOR RESOURCES PLC

OPERATIONS REPORT AND PROJECT OVERVIEW

FOR THE SIX MONTHS TO 30 JUNE 2009

EL SALVADOR

In El Salvador MARN has continued to delay processing all applications for permits to undertake exploration drilling. The newly elected government, which took office in June 2009, has not committed itself to a policy either for or against future mining operations in the country. While there remains uncertainty about the El Salvador government's policy regarding future mining operations Condor's wholly owned local subsidiary, Minerales Morazan SA de CV, has continued to operate on a care-and-maintenance basis with staffing levels cut back to the minimum necessary to maintain the licences in good standing. It is anticipated that expenditure will be kept to a minimum until such time as the government commits to supporting future mining operations. Condor continues to pay surface taxes on all concessions and produce reports to the Department of Mines in order to keep the concessions in good order.

The Company is taking a leading role, along with all other exploration and mining companies in El Salvador, to lobby the government for the issue of these permits to allow drilling and mining of economic resources. A programme of education, both at government and popular level is being conducted to counteract the anti-mining propaganda from well-funded quasi-environmentalist and anti-globalisation groups in El Salvador. To this end meetings with high-ranking government officials, the distribution of well researched literature on environmentally and socially responsible mining practices and presentations by independent experts on clean mine processing practices in public and private meetings are being organised for the third and fourth quarter of 2009. 

NICARAGUA

In Nicaragua, the Company, through its wholly owned Nicaraguan subsidiary, Condor S.A., continued to take advantage of the withdrawal from Nicaragua of a number of other exploration companies to lodge applications with the government for high quality concessions. Condor had seven concessions under application on the 30th June. With one application rejected due to a pre-existing claim and one further application lodged in July, seven concessions remain under application at the time of reporting. The strategy of reducing Condor's reliance on mature exploration concessions held by third parties under option to joint venture, with newly granted, 100% Condor-owned concessions has significantly reduced the company's tax and option burden, as well as disposing of future Royalty obligations.

With this cost-reducing strategy in mind, in February 2009 Condor decided to withdraw from the San Albino-Murra option agreement. An upcoming option payment of US$250,000 required for Condor to earn an 80 percent equity interest in the concession was not considered a good use of funds given the size of the resource and the substantial amount of drilling that would be required to discover whether or not the concession contains a commercial reserve. Condor retains the adjacent 100 percent Condor owned Potrerillos Concession.

On the 17th April 2009 Condor was granted the Santa Barbara Concession covering an area of 16 square kilometres adjacent with, and to the east of the Cacao Concession. The Santa Barbara Concession includes two historically reported gold occurrences located approximately 2 kilometres and 4 kilometres to the east of the Cacao Resource. The gold occurrences exist as dacite-hosted epithermal quartz stockwork zones, and are interpreted as exposures of the eastern strike extension of the same structure that hosts the Cacao gold resource. Previous explorers reported rock chip samples assaying at over 1 gram per tonne gold at both sites, check sampling undertaken by Condor verified these results.

A programme of surface mapping, rockchip sampling and trenching is planned to test the areas of outcrop. This will be supplemented by ground geophysics designed locate the mineralised structure beneath alluvial cover sequences that are known to occur between the two gold occurrences and the Cacao Resource.

Data is being gathered on previous exploration activity and background geological studies on the concessions under application and other targeted areas so that concessions will be ready for field exploration as soon as they are granted.

Dr. Luc English: 

Country Manager El Salvador and Nicaragua

CONDOR RESOURCES PLC

CONSOLIDATED INCOME STATEMENT

FOR THE SIX MONTHS TO 30 JUNE 2009