Frute del Norte is one of the highest-grade undeveloped gold deposits in the world

Lundin Gold Inc. (TSX.V: LUG) is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, with a corporate office in Quito, Ecuador. The company is developing its wholly-owned Fruta del Norte gold project in southeast Ecuador. Fruta del Norte is one of the highest-grade and largest gold projects currently under construction. The company’s board and management team have extensive expertise in mine construction and operations, and are dedicated to advancing this project through to first gold production in 2019.

Natasha Frakes: Hi, I’m Natasha Frakes, and you’re watching Market One Minute. Joining us is Ron Hochstein, President and CEO of Lundin Gold. Thank you so much for being here Ron.

Ron Hochstein: Thank you very much for having me.

Natasha Frakes: So, tell us what it’s like developing a large-scale mine in Ecuador, which is relatively new to the mining space.

Ron Hochstein: It’s quite a challenge Natasha, because you’re right, this is really the first large-scale development in Ecuador in the mining space. There is another company that’s developing a copper mine, but really this is the one that the world is looking at, because we are a Western company. And we’re certainly applying a lot of new techniques, but also, we’re really paying attention to what we’ve called, and what the government is now using, “responsible mining,” which means that it’s not just developing the mine, but developing the local economy, developing opportunities for the local communities, and for showing the government overall that mining really could be a key component of Ecuador going forward.

Natasha Frakes: And what makes the Fruta del Norte deposit so unique?

Ron Hochstein: It is one of the best discoveries, arguably some have said, it is one of the best discoveries. It was discovered in 2006 and has been developed since then. Today, it is the largest undeveloped, highest-grade gold deposit in the world. Our average grades are 9.6 grams per tonne. Now to put that into perspective, what the large companies, what a lot of them mine, is more in the neighborhood of one gram per tonne. So, this is nine times richer.

It is also very unique in that it is a very small ore body. It’s not the type that is stretched over a long area — it’s also very concentrated. Our grades and the type of ore is very concentrated. It’s not what you would consider in some other mines a vein-type deposit that can have its own challenges. So, it’s unique in a number of different ways.

Natasha Frakes: And what stage is the project at?

Ron Hochstein: Right now, we’re in construction. So, we actually formally started our construction in July of 2017, and we’re well underway with site clearing. The key for us is the development of the underground mine. So, about a month ago, we got through a really challenging phase of soft tunneling, and now we’re into the hard rock. Now, it’s hit it hard and get us to the ore body as fast as we can. While we’re doing that, we’ll be doing a lot of work on surface. We also have to build a new road, a new power line. So, there’s quite a bit on the go, and right now we have almost a thousand people on site working away.

Natasha Frakes: So, are you expecting to do that all over the next year, or what big milestones are you expecting to hit?

Ron Hochstein: Our big milestone right now is we’re working towards first gold in Q4 at 2019. That’s the big one that we’re all focused on. But we have a number of interim milestones. For us, it was getting to that hard rock, which was really key. We were able to do that on schedule and on budget, so that was a real key milestone for us. We’ve now ordered all our process equipment, so a large part of our capital is fixed, and so now it is really all hands on deck to Q4 2019.

Natasha Frakes: You mentioned responsibility, how are you ensuring that the community and local governments are supportive of the project?

Ron Hochstein: Today, mining it’s key that you maintain what we call our social license. There’s many great stories in the mining industry where they have good assets, but they’ve lost their social license, their ability to work with local communities, governments, and even national governments. So, for us from the start, this was a key factor that we had to pay attention to.

So, we focus on a few things. One is training. We need to be able to provide — this is a new industry for this province — so we need to be able to provide them with the training, so that they can have jobs, focusing on hiring as much as we can locally. Currently, half our workforce is from the local communities. The other one is local procurement, which is trying to buy as much as we can from local suppliers, so that you get that economic diversification within the province overall.

Natasha Frakes: Well it sounds like you have all the right pieces for success. Ron, thank you so much for being here.

Ron Hochstein: Thank you.

This story was provided by Market One Media Group for commercial purposes.