First oil, now Gold-copper.

[El Presidente]

 

https://thewest.com.au/business/bulls-n-bears/gold-copper-hits-to-pump-antilles-resource-in-cuba-c-12300040

Gold-copper hits to pump Antilles resource in Cuba

Rohan HalfpennySPONSORED

Mon, 23 October 2023 7:48PM

 

 

 

Antilles Gold is closing in on a resource estimate in Cuba. Credit: File

Solid new copper and gold intersections at Antilles Gold’s El Pilar project in Cuba will form part of a looming maiden mineral resource estimate as the company forges towards its proposed Nueva Sabana mine.

Management today revealed headline results of 3m at an eye-catching 37.54 grams per tonne gold from 20m and 25m at 3.35 per cent copper from 53m, including 9m at 7.86 per cent. It says the “outstanding” grades in the gold domain extend from surface to a depth of between 40m and 50m, while “robust” grades in the underlying copper domain continue for a further 50m to 70m.

Antilles and joint venture (JV) partner Geominera SA, the Cuban Government’s mining company, is planning to establish a resource estimate for the project in January next year. The JV says it has been encouraged by metallurgical testing for both gold and copper, with simple flotation producing 85 per cent recoveries for the gold.

 

It expects low-cost mine construction of about US$20 million (AU$31.72 million) to start in about May next year and run for 10 months. Upon commissioning, run-of-mine ore is expected to range between 500,000 and 600,000 tonnes per annum and negotiations for forward gold sales have already begun.

 

The Nueva Sabana mine is expected to have low operating costs as well as low development costs due to its location, terrain, very low waste to ore ratio, and simple metallurgy. The Company has already contributed its equity for a 50% interest in the Nueva Sabana mine, and financial projections indicate very high returns, and a significant NPV for the project which will be confirmed soon after receipt of the MRE and mine plan early next year. Even though only a small project, the commencement of a reasonable cash flow around Q2 2025 would be most welcome.

Antilles Gold executive chairman Brian Johnson

The company has a 7000m drilling program near completion and has targeted the upper high-sulphidation epithermal and underlying porphyry environment. Drilling has been concentrated in the upper central 300m-by-200m vuggy silica-alunite area that sits within an oxide zone with a diameter of more than 600m.

Metallurgical testwork has achieved the gold recoveries of 85 per cent from a simple rougher flotation circuit with a concentrate of 53.1g/t gold produced from an ore sample grading 2.11g/t. Copper metallurgy testwork is ongoing, but Antilles says indications are that the copper concentrate will exceed 25 per cent copper.

The low capital costs anticipated for the project owe much to the developed infrastructure already being in place, including high-tension power, rail and highway links to the container port, a water supply and access to skilled labour. The ability to dry-hire mining equipment, in contrast to expensive up-front purchasing, will also lower initial capital expenditure and decrease the project payback period.

In all, Antilles seems well placed in the Caribbean to move quickly to mine construction following its successful ore-defining diamond drill program.

[helix]

Hope it works out for them but you know Cuba being Cuba.

[Chibearsv]

Ounce and a quarter of gold per mined ton at 500,000 tons per year is 1.25 * 500,000 * $1900 = $1,187,500,000.00 per year in gold. Seems like a crazy big number.  What’ve they been waiting for?

[El Hoze]

With the good fortune of these abundant natural resources who knows maybe Cuba could be the next Argentina. 

[BrightonCorgi]

Waiting for China to swoop in for a very convincing offer to Cuba on this one.

 

[LordAnubis]

Interesting. Nothing to suggest mineral resource but that’s a solid ore body. Flotation will keep gold theft low, good product quality, and at some point they’ll have to look at cyanide leaching for the oxide material if there’s any gold there and they can keep the copper low. 

[LordAnubis]

On 10/24/2023 at 7:35 AM, Chibearsv said:

Ounce and a quarter of gold per mined ton at 500,000 tons per year is 1.25 * 500,000 * $1900 = $1,187,500,000.00 per year in gold. Seems like a crazy big number.  What’ve they been waiting for?

Not quite how it works. The 35g/t are the highest grade hits in their exploration drilling. They will obviously feed that high grade material with low grade material. They are stating that the metallurgy test work was done at 2.11 g/t gold feed grade which is about industry standard for a sulfide processing operation. 
Then there is 85% recovery meaning of the gold that goes into the plant only 85% will go into the product. On top of this, they will likely sell the concentrate as a copper concentrate with gold credits  and depending on what deal you can wrangle with the buyer you’re generally getting about a 60% spot price for gold credits because of course it costs the buyer money to process it and extract the gold  

So your calculation will be 2.11g per tonne x 500,000 tonnes x 85% recovery x (61 usd per gram of gold x 60%) which is close to 33 million dollars in gold sales. Obviously copper value there as well. I’d estimate their operating costs for that processing flow sheet will be about 25 - 30million per annum.  

[El Presidente]

Cuba: Melbana Energy provides update on early testing at Block 9, onshore Cuba

 

02 Nov 2023

Highlights

• Delivery of 20 tanker loads of oil to storage from early production testing of Unit 1B of Alameda-2.
• Production was run for a total of 10 days, yielding valuable data on the reservoir and logistics performance.
• The well has now been shut in to monitor pressure build up to complete data acquisition for reservoir modelling and field development planning.
• Casing and other inventory for the Alameda-3 Appraisal Well (to test the deeper two geologically independent reservoirs, designated Alameda and Marti) continues to arrive in country ahead of the commencement of drilling operations.

Melbana Energy’s Executive Chairman, Andrew Purcell, commented:

'The first phase of the early production operation from the Unit 1B reservoir in Alameda-2 is complete and it has delivered a lot of good data. The second phase is now underway, monitoring the pressure build up after shutting in the well. Together, this will give us more information on this reservoir’s extent and production characteristics to help us refine our field development plan.

I am heading back to Cuba in a few weeks to review procedures and operational status ahead of the commencement of drilling of our next appraisal well, the results of which we are all greatly looking forward to following the excellent outcome of the first appraisal well'.

Melbana Energy, a 30% interest holder in and Operator of Block 9 PSC onshore Cuba, has provided this operational update.

Early production from Unit 1B at Alameda-2 is now complete. It was run for 10 days, twice the total duration of the Drill Stem Test conducted in this unit previously, resulting in 20 tanker loads of oil being produced and delivered to offsite storage. The flow peaked at 1,183 barrels of oil per day (BOPD) and was intentionally choked back to ensure a constant rate for the test period to optimise the collection of reservoir data. The extended period of production also provided important performance data on logistical arrangements for the transport and storage of the oil produced.

The produced oil was sampled for Pressure Volume and Temperature (PVT) analysis and other data obtained were of good quality and are now being analysed by the Company’s geoscience team and consultants. The well has now been shut in and will remain so for two times the period of this early production to gain further valuable data on the reservoir’s characteristics by monitoring the build-up of pressure in the well. The conclusions drawn from this analysis will be an important factor in the refinement of the development plan, including well design and spacing, for this upper sheet reservoir.

Preparations for the commencement of drilling of the Alameda-3 Appraisal Well (the primary objectives of which are the appraisal of the two lower geologically independent oil-bearing reservoirs intercepted by Alameda-1 - designated Alameda and Marti, respectively) are also nearing completion, with remaining equipment (casing, well head, other inventory etc.) continuing to arrive in country.