The Fruta del Norte gold project is located in southeast Ecuador about 139 km east-northeast of the City of Loja. The majority of the project area lies in the highlands south of the Zamora River and east of the Nangaritza River in the Condor mountain region. The Fruta del Norte (FDN) deposit is an intermediate-sulphidation epithermal gold-silver deposit measuring approximately 1,670 m along strike, 700 m down dip and between 150 m and 300 m wide. The structure that hosts the FDN deposit is a Jurassic aged structural zone termed the Suárez pull-apart basin.
Historical work carried out by prior owners including Aurelian Resources Inc., and Kinross Gold Corporation, enabled Lundin Gold to move quickly towards a Feasibility Study and ultimately a production decision after acquiring FDN in late 2014. Lundin Gold advanced the project to mine construction, reaching first gold production in November 2019. Commercial production was achieved in February 2020.
Lundin Gold announced additional results from the 2024 near-mine drilling program, with recent intercepts confirming the significant size of the new Bonza Sur gold deposit at FDN. The Bonza Sur gold deposit, discovered in 2023, is located one km south of FDN. In December 2024, Lundin Gold announced that it had surpassed 56,000 m of drilling, the largest ever exploration drilling program conducted on the land package hosting FDN, at an estimated program cost of $44.0 million when combined with its regional program.
In 2024, Lundin Gold announced updated Mineral Reserves for the Fruta del Norte mine. As of December 31, 2024, current Proven and Probable Mineral Reserves contain 5.54 Moz of gold in 2.06 Mt at a grade of 7.81 g/t (3.7 g/t gold cut-off grade), after accounting for mining depletion of 0.54 Moz in 2024.
