Antilles Gold Ltd (ASX:AAU, OTCQB:ANTMF) has fielded up to 194 g/t gold in a drilling program at El Pilar Project in central Cuba.
The company recently set out on a 1,800-metre cored drill campaign, focused on an outcropping oxide gold domain at the Cuban gold play.
Now, assays are in from SGS Canada and the best results include:
- 53.5 metres at 19.06 g/t gold from 10 metres, including 16.4 metres at 41.64 g/t;
- 13 metres at 45.17 g/t from surface, including 3 metres at 194 g/t;
- 4.3 metres at 4.96 g/t from surface and 16.3 metres at 3.31 g/t from 14.3 metres;
- 8 metres at 5.88 g/t from surface; and
- 18 metres at 2.23 g/t from 4 metres.
In today’s announcement, Antilles highlighted that it was in talks to strike a joint venture with the Cuban Government's mining company, GeoMinera.
If negotiations go through, the 17,800-hectare El Pilar concession will be transferred from the company's existing exploration agreement with GeoMinera.
The existing concession is currently being divided into two separate concessions with the same boundaries.
The first will allow mining to 100 metres on the gold-copper oxide deposit and the second will allow mining to any depth below 100 metres on the large underlying copper-gold porphyry system, which is currently Antilles Gold's primary target in Cuba.
Antilles is also considering whether to expand the oxide concession to adjacent areas, where historical, artisanal mining points to resource-boosting opportunities.
Fast-tracked to mine
Antilles executive chair Brian Johnson said: “As soon as the basic terms of the joint venture have been established, Antilles Gold will subscribe approximately US$2 million of equity to the joint venture company to be expended on a 10,000-metre shallow drilling program on the oxide deposit to establish JORC resources, and on sufficient metallurgical test work to complete an accurate scoping study for an open pit mine designed to produce gold and copper concentrates.
“Based on the results from the recent exploration program, and from 28,000 metres of historic drilling of the oxide deposit, the company is confident that a relatively small, but gold-rich, mine could be developed next year and funded primarily by advances for contracted concentrate sales.”
Next steps
A preliminary five-hole drill program (planned to around 600 metres deep) will kick off at the porphyry concession once fieldwork is complete.
This work includes ground magnetics and induced polarisation surveys, which are slated for completion and interpretation in the next six to seven weeks.
Antilles will foot the bill as part of its review process for potential projects but it will be refunded from any future development.
Subject to the preliminary drilling results, the explorer intends to put more money behind the El Pilar joint venture, enabling a 20,000-metre drill program and associated test work from around July 2023.
Antilles Gold intends to raise funding for its joint venture equity and the proposed drilling programs but it promises to do so in a manner least dilutive for shareholders.