Golden International’s Paquisha project covers 1,880 hectares in the Zamora-Chinchipe province of Ecuador, situated 15km to the east of the town Paquisha. Access to within 5km of the site is available by paved road, with the remaining distance by gravel road.
The site is located approximately 20km south of Fruta del Norte, the country’s largest operational gold mine, and the region is known to contain considerable gold deposits. Initial exploration activity undertaken by Golden International indicates mineable reserves of 3.6 million ounces of gold at a grade of 8.71 grams per tonne.
The mineralogy of the site consists of crystalline quartz, manganese carbonates, calcite, barite, marcasite, and pyrite, as well as traces of tetrahedrite and silver sulphosalts. The mineralization is moderately refractory, with an estimated 35% of the gold locked in sulphides.
Golden International is currently in negotiations with several prospective partners to undertake both the extraction of the deposits discovered, and to build the required infrastructure to support the project.
