Three Continental Gold geologists killed in Colombia

Three exploration geologists working on Continental Gold’s (TSX: CNL; US-OTC: CGOOF) Berlin project in Colombia were killed during an attack on their residence in the middle of the night.

The residence houses exploration geologists and contractors working on the project and is located in the village of Ochali, which lies within the boundaries of the Berlin project, 90 km north of Medellin.

Preliminary reports are that the employees were killed by a dissident group of ex-FARC members. FARC — the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia — was a guerrilla movement that operated from 1964 until 2017. It started off as a Marxist-Leninist peasant force promoting agrarianism and anti-imperialism.

The killings at the Berlin project in the municipality of Yaramul, Antioquia, follow an attack by armed men earlier this month at the company’s Buritica project, about an eight-hour drive from Berlin, which left one employee dead.

In that attack, two mining engineers working for Continental Gold were travelling by truck to the mine site when they were attacked by gunfire coming from the mountains.

Buritica, where Continental is building an underground mine, is about a two-hour drive from Medellin on the Pan-American highway. The 75,000-hectare project area lies in the middle Cauca belt in northwestern Colombia’s Antioquia department.

Construction at Buritica is about 38% complete and the company expects to pour gold in the first half of 2020 with commercial production ramp-up about six months after that.

In the most recent killings at Berlin, Continental Gold said it is unclear “as to the severity of the attack but the worst is feared.”

Access to the 55,410-hectare project is through the town of Yaramul on a paved road and through Briceno or San Andreas to the project on the unsealed original mine access road. The area is sparsely populated with steep terrain and much of the concession area is accessible only by mule or on foot.

The original Berlin mine operated from 1930 until 1946 and produced 413,000 ounces of gold from a number of quartz veins and lenses measuring up to 20 metres thick. The life of mine grade was 16 grams gold per tonne.