The Fruta del Norte gold project is located in southeast Ecuador about 139 kilometres 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 metres along strike, 700 metres down dip and between 150 metres and 300 metres 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. Over the next five years, Lundin Gold advanced the project to mine construction, reaching first gold production in November 2019. Commercial production was achieved in February 2020.
Lundin Gold has completed several drill programs since 2015. Mapping, geochemical sampling and permitting required for future drilling continues at multiple epithermal gold-silver targets to be explored inside and outside of the Suárez basin structure.
In 2024, Lundin Gold announced updated Mineral Reserves for the Fruta del Norte mine. As of December 31, 2023, current Proven and Probable Mineral Reserves contain 5.5 Moz of gold in 21.7 Mt at a grade of 7.9 g/t (4.0 and 5.3 g/t cut-off grade based on mining method).
