Fruta del Norte mine

The Fruta del Norte deposit is the largest gold deposit in Ecuador.[1] The deposit is part of the Corriente Copper Belt located in the Amazon province of Zamora-Chinchipe.

Fruta del Norte (FDN) deposit NOT A MINE (2015)
Location
Zamora-Chinchipe Province
CountryEcuador
Production
ProductsGold
Owner
CompanyLundin Gold Inc.

In 2006 geologist Keith Barron and his company Aurelian discovered a large deposit at Fruta del Norte, estimated between 6.8 and 10 million ounces of gold and between 9.1 and 14 million ounces of silver.[2][3] Following changes to Ecuadorian mining laws that limited foreign ownership of mining projects, the Canadian company Kinross Gold acquired Aurelian Resources in 2009 and took on the project.[3] Despite the project's potential, and just days before Congress passed a new mining law in 2013, Kinross pulled out of Ecuador after a dispute over windfall taxes, reporting a loss of $720 million.[4][5][6] In 2014 Kinross sold its entire interest in the project to Fortress Minerals Corporation.[7][8]

Discovery

The deposit was discovered by a combination of a conceptual exploration model that predicted mineralization might occur buried in a pull-apart basin (Aurelian Exploration Manager Steve Leary) and the observation that some silicification of these basin sediments had occurred at Fruta del Norte by geologist Julio Soto.[9]

References
  1. url=http://www.lundingold.com/s/projects.asp
  2. "He Struck It Rich in Ecuador. Now He's Looking for the Lost Cities of Gold". Bloomberg.com. 20 December 2017.
  3. "The Barron is back - MINING.com".
  4. Joe Leahy (11 June 2013). "Kinross Gold scraps $1.3bn Ecuador project". The Financial Times. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
  5. Patricia Rey Mallén (13 June 2013). "Canadian Gold Giant Kinross Pulls Out Of Ecuador Mine Project, Will China Take Its Place?". International Business Times. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
  6. Leahy, Joe (2013-06-10). "Kinross Gold scraps $1.3bn Ecuador project". Financial Times.
  7. Alvaro, Mercedes (22 October 2014). "Kinross to Sell Interest in Ecuador's Fruta del Norte Gold Mine to Fortress". Wall Street Journal – via www.wsj.com.
  8. Reuters Editorial (21 October 2014). "UPDATE 1-Kinross to sell halted Ecuador gold project to Lundin company". Reuters. {{cite news}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  9. Leary, Stephen; Sillitoe, Richard H.; Stewart, Peter W.; Roa, Karl J.; Nicolson, Benjamin E. (2016). "Discovery, Geology, and Origin of the Fruta del Norte Epithermal Gold-Silver Deposit, Southeastern Ecuador". Economic Geology. 111 (5): 1043–1072. doi:10.2113/econgeo.111.5.1043.

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