Antilles Gold Limited (ASX: AAU) has received promising results from a revised Scoping Study for the proposed development of the La Demajagua open pit gold-silver mine in Cuba.
The upgrade follows the updating of Mineral Resources, and receipt of a pit shell and material scheduling from mining consultants, Cube Consulting, and the results of metallurgical testwork to date.
• The La Demajagua mine is expected to be developed in the near term in a joint venture with the Cuban Government’s mining company, GeoMinera SA, with the objective of producing a gold arsenopyrite concentrate for sale to an international trading company, and a silver-antimony concentrate for sale to a Chinese antimony smelter.
• The updated Mineral Resources included in the attached revised summary of the Scoping Study do not include a Mineral Resource Estimate for the antimony (Sb) within the pit shell, as the Company is yet to receive a substantial number of Sb assays from its recent 28,000m cored drilling programme.
• Antilles Gold’s Technical Director, Dr Jinxing Ji, who has significant experience in the flotation of sulphide ores, and who has supervised the metallurgical test work for the project by SGS and Blue Coast Research in Canada, has provided the antimony content expected to be produced in the La Demajagua silver-antimony concentrate based on assays of Sb grades in the drill cores used for the test work.
• Following receipt of the Sb assays and completion of the test work, both the Mineral Resource Estimate and the Financial Modelling for the project will be updated for inclusion in the Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS), which is nearing completion.
• Based on the Study results it is probable the Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) will increase the mining rate and reduce the mine life from nine years to around seven years which should increase annual metal production, profitability, and IRR.
Executive Chairman, Brian Johnson, said the results of the Scoping Study are most encouraging despite geotechnical investigations requiring much flatter slopes to the hanging wall than were previously anticipated which has resulted in an increase in the waste to ore ratio, and operating costs.
“However, the results continue to demonstrate the strong return that Antilles Gold can expect to receive on its low equity contribution to the project.
“The joint venture’s objective is to apply part of the surplus cash expected to be generated by the La Demagaua open pit mine to fund following projects, and to explore major copper prospects to which it has access, including the large El Pilar copper-gold porphyry system in central Cuba where drilling will commence following the interpretation of recently completed ground magnetics and IP surveys.
“The company’s current market capitalisation of $20M is significantly less than its share of the La Demajagua NPV8, and does not reflect the potential of other properties that have been made available to or joint ventures with GeoMinera including El Pilar, which collectively present Antilles Gold with an excellent opportunity for future growth.”
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