Antilles Gold is crunching the numbers on its mining potential after hitting gold at its El Pilar deposit in central Cuba.
The headline results include 16m going 6.3 grams per tonne gold from 2m, containing 4m at 11.75g/t, 7m running 5.27g/t from 1m, including 3m grading 10.87g/t and 6m giving up 2.07g/t gold from 5m, containing 1m at 7.41g/t.
Management says it is 2200m into a 7000m drilling program aimed at establishing a mineral resource estimate for the proposed low cap-ex Nueva Sabana mine to produce gold and copper-gold concentrates.
Some of the copper highlights from the latest assays include 27m at 0.73 per cent copper from 43m and 22m going 1.1 per cent copper from 44m, including 5m at 2.2 per cent copper.
The exploration took place in locations at El Pilar that were selected with the aim of validating historic results for inclusion in the company’s upcoming resource estimate.
Management says gold zones in the deposit are well defined, while copper zones are increasing both laterally and vertically. It expects that theme to extend to the underlying porphyry intrusion that is the source of the metals.
Antilles argues its latest results reveal the economic potential for a small open-pit mine that could be the source of early cash flow for the joint venture (JV) it holds with the Cuban Government’s mining company, GeoMinera SA.
The company believes a small mine could target gold and copper domains to a depth of between 80m and 100m in advance of any development of the bigger underlying copper-gold porphyry system.
Ongoing testwork has indicated a gold recovery of 85 per cent from a simple rougher flotation circuit producing concentrate with a grade of 53.1g/t gold from ore, with a head grade of 2.11g/t.
The costs of drilling to establish the resource estimate, testwork and other predevelopment activities for the proposed mine will be counted as part of the US$1.5 million (AU$2.21 million) Antilles was required to fork out for its 50 per cent stake in the El Pilar play.
The project covers 1700 hectares and is one of three exploration concessions held by the NSW-based company in its (JV) with the Cuban Government.
The El Pilar porphyry body is interpreted to extend through a 300m strike and a 200m width. At the nearby Gaspar target, the porphyry has been outlined over a 200m strike and up to a 200m width.
With an initial drilling program on the porphyry intrusive being kicked off, things could quickly get interesting for Antilles should the deeper results follow the trend from closer to surface.
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