Antilles Gold (ASX:AAU) return more high-grade gold and copper from El Pilar
October 23, 2023Antilles Gold‘s latest five diamond holes have returned another series of high-grade gold and copper strikes from the El Pilar Oxide Deposit in central Cuba.
The results are earmarked for inclusion into geological modelling and the maiden resource at El Pilar, coming among a collection of intercepts which have done little to dissuade against the near-term development of a low-cost Nueva Sabana mine.
Antilles Executive Chairman Brian Johnson said the proposed mine is expected to have low operating and development cost due to its location, terrain, very low waste to ore ratio, and simple metallurgy.
“The Company has already contributed its equity for a 50% interest in the Nueva Sabana mine, and financial projections indicate very high returns, and a significant NPV for the project which will be confirmed soon after receipt of the MRE and mine plan early next year,” Mr Johnson said.
“Even though only a small project, the commencement of a reasonable cash flow around Q2 2025 would be most welcome.”
The upper gold domain is well defined and has continued to yield outstanding grades from surface to as deep as 50 metres, while preliminary metallurgy has indicated a simply produced 85 per cent gold recovery.
It offers a potential early cash flow for the joint venture with Cuba’s state-owned mining operations, and negotiations have begun for advanced gold sales to fund operations before turning towards the deeper copper prize.
A prize which continues to build volume both laterally and vertically as exploration continues, projecting into the underlying porphyry sulphide and breccia-hosted mineralisation and showing early indications of a copper concentrate surpassing 25 per cent.
The continued return of high-grade gold and copper had already spurred intentions to develop Nueva Sabana as soon as possible, and the plan is now laid for a 10-month construction period to begin by June next year.
And from then, Antilles eye a deepening relationship with its Cuban partners and to cement its status within a reopening mining sector, with near term cash on the cards to delve into larger scale exploration for world class copper deposits.
New highlights:
Gold
- HOLE PDH-033 3.0m @ 37.54g/t Au from 20.0m
- HOLE PDH-032 6.0m @ 9.99g/t Au from surface,
2.0m @ 2.86g/t Au from 12.0m,
3.0m @ 6.05g/t Au from 26.0m - HOLE PDH-031 2.0m @ 4.0g/t Au from 18.0m
2.0m @ 3.69g/t Au from 95.0m
Copper
- HOLE PDH-031 25.0m @ 3.35% Cu from 53m, including 9.0m @7.86% Cu
- HOLE PDH-032 32.0m @ 0.89% Cu from 30.0m
5.0m @ 1.14% Cu from 97.0m - HOLE PDH-033 10.0m @ 0.55% Cu from 44.0m
8.0m @ 0.61% Cu from 69.0m - HOLE PDH-034 2.0m @ 0.87% Cu from 82.0m
4.0m @ 0.84% Cu from 102.0m
3.0m @ 0.84% Cu from 115.0m - HOLE PDH-035 14.0m @ 0.65% Cu from 60.0m
JV project locations
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