FRUTA DEL NORTE “FDN” DEPOSIT

Fruta del Norte, one of the premier gold discoveries of the last 50 years, is a large, high-grade, bulk-mineable, epithermal gold-silver vein-stockwork deposit.

The FDN deposit is located within a 150 km long copper–gold metallogenic sub-province located in the Cordillera del Cóndor region of Ecuador. The deposit is hosted by andesites of the Santiago Formation and feldspar porphyry intrusions.

The FDN deposit is a North-South trending intermediate-sulphidation epithermal gold–silver deposit measuring approximately 1,300 m along strike, 400 m down dip and generally ranging between 80 m and 300 m wide. The top of the deposit is located beneath approximately 200 m of post-mineralization cover rocks. The eastern and western limits of the deposit are defined by two faults that together form part of the Las Peñas fault system that is thought to control the gold–silver mineralization. The southern limit of the mineralization along the fault system has not been fully defined by exploration activities. The most intense alteration, veining, brecciation, greatest mineralogic complexity, and highest grades occur in the 300 m long, high-grade core, which contains most of the current Mineral Resource.

Mineralization is characterized by intense, multi-phase quartz–sulphide ± carbonate stockwork veining and brecciation over broad widths, typically between 100–150 m wide in the coherent central and northern parts of the system where the gold and silver grades are highest. Mineralized shoots are typically present within dilatant zones developed along inflections of vein strike or dip where the geometry permits maximum opening at the time of mineralization.

The mineralogy of FDN consists of chalcedonic to crystalline quartz, manganese-carbonates, calcite, adularia, barite, marcasite, and pyrite, as well as subordinate sphalerite, galena, and chalcopyrite, and traces of tetrahedrite and silver sulphosalts. The bulk of the gold is microscopic and associated with quartz, carbonates and sulphides. Much of the gold is free milling, but the mineralization is moderately refractory, with approximately 40% of the gold locked in sulphides. However, coarse visible gold is commonly observed. Individual gold grains range from discrete specks less than 0.1 mm in size to broccoli-like, arborescent crystals >10 mm across. Visible gold occurs in all mineralized zones, in quartz or carbonate, as well as within pyrite or silver sulphosalt clusters.