‘Witnesses’ reveal the economic profile of the deposit
The whole history of the exploratory drilling in Fruta del Norte, one of the five richest gold deposits in the world still unexploited in Zamora Chinchipe, is stored in 171,800 meters of rock cylinders. These are so-called “witnesses,” geologists used to find the exact location.
These samples were first collected in 1997 when the Climax del Ecuador company operated in that site. Aurelian, Kinross and Lundin Gold would then operate in the same site.
To date, according to Jorge Lema, Exploration Manager of Lundin Gold, 439 drillings have been made, which have yielded multiple results.
The most important is that the Fruta del Norte deposit would be a “high grade” deposit (with high concentration of minerals), economically exploitable. Half of those “witnesses” have been sent to an international laboratory for analysis.