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    Lundin Gold bonanza grades at Fruta del Norte: mine design notes for planners

    November 22, 2025|

    Reviewed by Tom Sullivan

    Lundin Gold bonanza grades at Fruta del Norte: mine design notes for planners

    First reported on MINING.com

    30 Second Briefing

    Underground conversion drilling at Lundin Gold’s Fruta del Norte South deposit in Ecuador has intercepted 5.2 metres grading 491.62 g/t gold from 40.6 metres depth, confirming locally bonanza-grade mineralisation near existing workings. The shallow intercept, from underground drilling rather than surface, suggests potential for rapid incorporation into the current mine plan with limited additional development. For geotechnical and mine planning teams, the result supports tighter stope design around high-grade shoots and may justify re-optimising ground support and sequencing in this sector of the orebody.

    Technical Brief

    • Underground drilling geometry allows tighter pierce-point spacing than previous surface programmes, improving shoot definition.
    • Data from these holes will refine local resource classification, supporting conversion of inferred to indicated.
    • Short-hole underground rigs reduce collar-to-target distance, improving deviation control in steeply dipping structures.
    • High-grade continuity at shallow levels may influence crown pillar design and extraction sequencing.
    • Concentrated high-grade zones could justify narrower, more selective stopes to limit dilution.

    Our Take

    Gold pieces are only a handful in our database compared with the 22 Mining stories overall, so bonanza-grade underground hits in Ecuador stand out against a backdrop still dominated by base metals and bulk commodities.

    An underground interval of 5.2 metres grading nearly 500 g/t at around 40 metres depth suggests there may be scope for relatively low-cost, near-infrastructure resource conversion, which can extend mine life or support higher-grade mine plans without major new development headings.

    For Ecuador, which appears less frequently than traditional Andean gold jurisdictions in our coverage, such high-grade results help de-risk perceptions of geological prospectivity and can strengthen the case for further foreign investment in underground gold projects in the country.

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    Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.

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