Antilles Gold (ASX: AAU) has released its maiden JORC 2012 Mineral Resource Estimate for the La Demajagua gold-silver deposit in Cuba, a joint venture with the Cuban Government owned GeoMinera SA.
The MRE, reported at a block cut-off grade of 0.8 g/t Au, weighed in at 7.7Mt @ 2.9g/t Au and 38.6g/t Ag, for contained metals of 720,000oz gold (490,000oz indicated + 230,000oz inferred) along with 9,570,000oz silver (6,080,000oz indicated + 3,490,000oz inferred).
Speaking on the news, Antilles Gold Executive Chairman Brian Johnson said: “The Indicated and Inferred Resources assessed to date of 720,000 oz Au from new and historic drilling, are expected to increase with additional results when the current drilling program has been completed.”
The MRE was calculated using data from an historic two stage, 25,000m resource definition drill program that was carried out across a portion of the currently defined strike length of the La Demajagua gold-silver deposit.
“The Indicated and Inferred Resources … are expected to increase with additional results when the current drilling program has been completed”
The mine is being assessed initially as an open pit operation, with the reported Resources sitting inside of a US$2,000/oz Au optimisation shell.
La Demajagua is located on the Isle of Youth in southwest Cuba. In October 2018 Antilles Gold Inc (a 100% subsidiary of Antilles Gold Limited) was selected by the Cuban Government’s mining company GeoMinera S.A. as its proposed 49% partner for the development of the project.
Under the joint venture agreement, Antilles Gold will contribute a total of US$13 million of equity for its 49% shareholding over a two-year period beginning from December 2020. Of this amount, approximately US$7 million will be spent on drilling, feasibility studies, project management, and administration, with the balance on mine infrastructure when construction commences.
Moving forward, Antilles expects to publish financial analysis from the current Scoping Study for the open pit mine in mid-February, following completion of preliminary metallurgical testwork on the La Demajagua mineralisation.
Additional drilling to establish the viability of a further underground operation is not expected to be undertaken until 2027.
Images: Antilles Gold Limited
