The Fruta Del Norte Discovery

The gold mining history of southern Ecuador has deep roots, extending back to a time before the Spanish conquest. The modern exploration of the region faced limitations and interruptions,

The gold mining history of southern Ecuador has deep roots, extending back to a time before the Spanish conquest. The modern exploration of the region faced limitations and interruptions, in part due to border disputes between Ecuador and Peru.

Artisanal miners in the Fruta Del Norte (FDN) area extracted narrow, high-grade veins at Bonza-Las Peñas through trenches, pits, and adits, but these operations were generally unprofitable. Climax Mining of Australia conducted the first systematic exploration in 1997, which included mapping, sampling, pitting, and IP surveys.

The geophysical survey revealed a strong chargeability anomaly 2 km north of Bonza-Las Peñas. Climax identified this anomaly as the top-priority target for future drill testing. However, it was later determined that the anomaly, located about 250 m east of the FDN mineralization, was not associated with it. Weak chargeability and resistivity anomalies were found over the FDN deposit, but they weren't considered strong enough for priority drilling. Despite the priority induced polarization anomaly remaining untested, Climax ceased exploration in early 1999 due to insufficient funding.

Aurelian Resources, established in 2001 to explore for gold and silver in the Cordillera del Cóndor, purchased the La Zarza concession in 2002. Detailed exploration began in 2003, leading to the identification of advanced targets such as Bonza-Las Peñas. By late 2005, Aurelian had drilled 28 diamond holes, resulting in an inferred resource of 15 Mt at 1.1 g/t Au and 12 g/t Ag.

In April 2004, Aurelian geologists visited the FDN area during a regional stream sediment survey. The samples did not contain significant gold and returned a maximum of 4 grains of fine gold in the pan concentrates. The low gold values were not considered significant and the area was not highlighted for follow up.

In late 2005, a new exploration model, developed by Steve Leary, Aurelian’s exploration manager, reinterpreted the observations and predicted that significant epithermal gold mineralization may have formed in andesite within dilational faults along the Suarez basin margins. This was the turning point that resulted in the discovery of FDN.

Based on the new exploration model, the Aurelian board of directors approved a program of drill testing for buried mineralization within the Suarez pull-apart basin in September, 2005.

On January 17, 2006, Aurelian geologists returned to the FDN area for further exploration. The Climax IP anomaly area was explored and found under later Cretaceous sandstone cover. Heading downstream, the team discovered large siliceous boulders, up to several meters in diameter, 200 meters west of the anomaly. Aurelian geologists then conducted detailed mapping in the subsequent weeks.

Drill holes were planned for two targets: the IP anomaly and the epithermal quartz zone in Suarez conglomerate. Drilling commenced in February 2006, and the 2nd hole yielded unexpectedly high-grade intersections, averaging 4.14 g/t Au and 8.5 g/t Ag over 237 meters. A true gold discovery.

Aurelian was able to arrange sufficient financing to rapidly advance the project included road construction to the camp and project area, allowing the introduction of larger skid- and track-mounted rigs in November 2006 to complement two man-portable rigs.

After drilling 88 holes in less than 2 years, incl results like 35 g/t gold over 250m, a continuous body of mineralization was defined; 13 Moz gold @ 7.23 g/t Au. 

Exploration activities ceased in April 2008 due to a national moratorium imposed by the Ecuadorian government.

In September 2008, Kinross Gold acquired Aurelian for US$1.2 billion. Following a lifting of the moratorium, work at FDN resumed in 2009. However, disagreements with the Ecuadorian government led to a halt in project development in June 2013.

In December 2014, Kinross sold the FDN deposit to Lundin Gold for US$240 million. Construction began in July 2017, with Lundin Gold pouring its first gold in November 2019 and declaring commercial production in February 2020.