Antilles Gold Ltd (ASX:AAU, OTCQB:ANTMF) has its sights on producing in mineral-rich Cuba, which has been extensively explored by Canadian, Russian and Cuban mining companies but where development opportunities have been overlooked for decades.
The company says the near-term focus of its joint venture with the Cuban Government’s mining company, GeoMinera SA, will be on the development of two mid-sized mining projects and the exploration of a major copper-gold porphyry system.
Cuba is a mining-friendly jurisdiction, the company believes, with attractive foreign investment laws, and “realistic” mining and environmental regulations.
AAU will be busy pursuing a range of activities in 2023 as part of the joint venture company, Minera La Victoria S.A.
Activities in Cuba
Construction of the proposed La Demajagua open-pit mine is planned to start around April 2023 and produce two concentrate products following commissioning in late 2024, one being gold-rich, and the other silver-rich with high levels of valuable antimony.
Antimony is a strategic critical metal that is enjoying increasing demand – its price has doubled over the past two years. Its addition to the La Demajagua project revenue will drive project profitability and enhance financing options.
Additionally, the JV has planned a 7,000-metre drilling program of the outcropping El Pilar gold-copper oxide deposit for January 2023, in anticipation of the construction of a shallow, low cap-ex open-pit mine between the second quarter of 2024 and the second quarter of 2025, to produce copper and gold concentrates.
A separate 15,000-metre drilling program of the large, highly prospective El Pilar copper-gold porphyry system in central Cuba is planned to commence in February 2023.
An airborne geophysical survey will be conducted over the 40-kilometre-long New Horizons VMS-style polymetallic mineral belt in central Cuba in the third quarter of 2023.
Evolution of the JV
AAU spent two years negotiating a 49:51 joint venture with GeoMinera after being invited to participate in the development of the country’s largest known gold-silver deposit at La Demajagua.
In late 2021, GeoMinera agreed that it would work with Antilles Gold to progressively establish a mining company in Cuba focused on the production of copper and zinc as well as precious metals, rather than developing a single project at La Demajagua.
Based on geological modelling and metallurgical test-work, the mine can annually produce roughly 65,000 tonnes of concentrate containing gold, silver and antimony for around seven years, followed by underground operations for 10 years.
Selected properties
Antilles Gold was subsequently offered more than 30 previously explored concessions and properties to review from which three were selected, and two were incorporated in a formal exploration agreement with GeoMinera:
- A 17,800-hectare El Pilar Concession in central Cuba, which covers three copper-gold porphyry deposits (El Pilar, Gaspar and San Nicholas) and their overlying gold-copper oxide deposits which have near-term development potential.
- A 31,700-hectare, 40-kilometre-long New Horizons VMS-style polymetallic mineral belt in central Cuba that includes four copper-zinc mines (Antonio, Santa Rosa, San Fernando and Los Cerros) that were operated by a Soviet mining company until abandoned in the exodus from Cuba in 1991, and 16 identified targets with outcropping mineralisation.
- A major VMS polymetallic mineral field in southeast Cuba, which is also expected to be included in the exploration agreement that permits Antilles Gold to review, at its cost, the potential of various deposits through preliminary exploration, metallurgical test-work and financial analysis before nominating which properties should be transferred to a joint venture for potential development.