Join our daily newsletter At The Bell to receive exclusive market insights
- Antilles Gold (AAU) is planning to accelerate its diamond drilling program at the La Demajagua mine in Cuba
- A second drill rig is now onsite, and a third rig is expected to arrive sometime next month
- Antilles Gold expects to start receiving assay results from the Canadian laboratory in about six weeks
- The results will help establish initial JORC resources and contribute to a bankable feasibility study for the first stage of mine development
- Antilles Gold is down 3.41 per cent and trading at 8.5 cents per share
Antilles Gold (AAU) is planning to accelerate its diamond drilling program at the La Demajagua mine in Cuba.
The company’s current program for development of the gold–silver mine covers approximately 25,000 metres of diamond drilling. A second drill rig is now onsite at La Demajagua, and a third drill rig is expected to arrive sometime next month.
Meanwhile, a Canadian laboratory has been assaying drill samples from the site. Antilles Gold expects to start receiving assay results from the laboratory in about six weeks’ time, with results continuing to arrive all the way through to August 2021.
The anticipated assay results will join pre-existing data from 50,000 metres of drilling, which was previously conducted at La Demajagua by Canadian mining companies. Additionally, the results will allow initial JORC resources to be established, as well as completion of associated metallurgical test and the open-pit mine plan.
These will all contribute to the bankable feasibility study (BFS) currently being conducted on the mine’s first stage of development. Antilles Gold expects that the BFS will confirm the results of its preliminary economic assessment for the planned six-year open pit operation.
The company also hopes that the BFS will be completed in time for development decision in 2022’s fourth quarter.
In about five years’ time, Antilles Gold plans to conduct a separate study looking into the company’s plans for second-stage underground operations at the La Demajagua mine.
Antilles Gold is down 3.41 per cent, trading at 8.5 cents per share at 3:10 pm AEST.
