Issue link: http://resourceworld.uberflip.com/i/1012424
34 www.resourceworld.com A U G U S T / S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 8 ECUADOR IS FAMOUS for the Galapagos Islands and the work that Charles Darwin described in his now famous Origin of the Species where he recognized a unique eco- logical heritage. We take for granted the evolution of the animal kingdom because of the overwhelming evidence available to us today that Darwin recognized during his worldwide voyage 1831-1836 on the British ship, the Beagle. The country name, El Republica del Ecuador, is derived from The Republic of the Equator and it is the only country named after a world geographical feature. Ecuador is now in the throes of a mining boom thanks to Canadian and Australian exploration expertise and knowhow. One of the country's flagship assets, the huge Fruta del Norte gold deposity, is now in the development stage and poised to become a world-class gold project thanks to the work of Lundin Gold Inc. [LUG-TSX, NASDAQ Stockholm] and its predecessors. Fruta del North has had a bit of check- ered history leading up to its current status as one of the worlds' most signifi- cant developing gold projects. Prior to the discovery in 2006, Ecuador was never a prominent gold-hosting country to inter- national companies; however, as a result of a string of discoveries, including Fruta del Norte, there are currently more than 30 companies active in Ecuador. Sentiment towards Ecuador started to change when Canadian company Aurelian Resources Inc. took a serious look at the country and in 2006 made the Fruta del Norte discovery. Aurelian then sold their interest in Fruta del Norte to Kinross Gold Corp. [K-TSX; KGC-NYSE] in 2008 for $1.2 billion which later ran into an Ecuadorian government tax challenge that put a stop to develop- ing the project. In 2014, without being able to advance the project, Kinross sold its interest to Lundin Gold for $240 million, who in turn were able to make peace with the Ecuador government and satisfy the economic viability of the project by nego- tiating an Exploitation Agreement giving the company 25-year mining rights which are renewable for an additional 25 years. The turn of events that evolved from no go to go demonstrates the overall qual- ity of Lundin Gold, headed by Executive Chairman Lukas Lundin. It is part of the Lundin family dynasty that has world- wide interests in base metals, diamonds and oil and gas. Fruta del Norte is an intermediate sul- phidation epithermal gold-silver deposit located in the southeast corner of the country bordering Peru. The deposit lies within the Northern Andean Jurassic Metallogenetic Belt that extends from Colombia to the north and south to the Ecuador-Peru border. The deposit measures 1,670 metres along strike, 700 metres down dip and between 150 and 300 metres wide with extensions southward now under investi- gation. Mineralization is hosted by Triassic andesites and sediments comprising intense, multi-phase quartz-sulphide and variable carbonate stockwork veining and brecciation over broad widths. The mineralogy consists of chalcedonic to crystalline quartz, manganese carbon- ates, calcite, adularia, barite, marcasite and pyrite with subordinate sphalerite, galena, Fruta del Norte: Ecuador's golden treasure Lundin Gold is developing one of the world's richest and largest gold mines. by Dr. Edward Schiller Lundin Gold's process plant grinding area at the Fruta del Norte gold project in southeast Ecuador is on schedule. Photo courtesy Lundin Gold Inc. GOLD