Aguia grabs $1.5m to fast-track high-grade gold | Australian Markets

Aguia Assets has locked in $1.5 million in recent capital after finishing a placement of 40 million shares at 3.8 cents a share, setting the stage for an aggressive drilling marketing campaign at its high-grade Santa Barbara gold project in Colombia.

The new money can even assist enlargement of the company’s gold processing plant to 50 tonnes per day (tpd) and canopy common working capital wants.

A tranche of a million shares has been ringfenced for director functions, pending shareholder approval.

Aguia expects to launch a 25-hole diamond drilling program in the beginning of the June quarter for 2500 metres. The marketing campaign is designed to check extensions of the high-grade mineralised strike and dip at its major Santa Barbara and Mariana workings.

The company will use the drilling outcomes to pinpoint the rig’s subsequent goal and progressively take a look at further intensive gold-bearing veins which have been mapped however not but drilled.

Administration says the true speculative prize lies with the potential to show a collection of huge high-grade gold orebodies and unlock a important gold useful resource within the high-grade mineralised vein system.

This diamond drilling program will initially take a look at extensions of veins above and under the prevailing workings. We all know the place the veins are, we all know the orientation and the grades. Within the context of the Lassonde Curve, the company is coming into the section that probably has the best influence on the share price.

Extra than 7 kilometres of mapped mineralised veins run via the Santa Barbara project, with earlier hits returning uber-high grades of 38.91 grams per tonne (g/t) and 31 g/t in two key vein constructions.

The company says the geological setting at website bears hanging similarities to different high-grade mesothermal vein systems in Colombia, together with the Buriticá mine. The Chinese language-backed deposit has a useful resource of 3.86 million ounces of gold grading a huge 8.4g/t and 13.7m ounces of silver working at 24.3g/t.

Extra impressively, the close by Segovia gold mine – operated by Toronto-listed Aris Mining – incorporates a useful resource of 3.4m ounces grading 16g/t with a additional 2.5m ounces in inferred assets at comparable exceptional grades.

Given the possible scale and high-grade potential of Aguia’s project -especially contemplating the dimensions of neighbouring mines – the company is setting its sights high.

The company is chasing an bold exploration goal of 2 million to 4 million tonnes at gold grades starting from 20g/t to 30g/t. If realised, this has the potential to put Santa Barbara among the many area’s most vital gold discoveries.

Aguia has already accomplished substantial underground rehabilitation work on the mine’s major vein systems and restarted the plant, which is at present working at a throughput of 30tpd.

The company additionally celebrated its first gold pour 5 weeks in the past, delivering a lot needed money move for the project.

Key upgrades, together with a new Merrill Crowe gold restoration circuit and an 80t thickener, have been accomplished to improve the effectivity of the plant and pump up its capability from 30tpd to 50tpd within the close to time period.

Aguia’s enlargement into high-grade gold exploration comes because the company is within the pre-production section of monetising one other of its near-term mining alternatives.

It plans to make use of Santa Barbara’s money move to fund the capital necessities of its Tres Estradas natural phosphate mine in southern Brazil.

The company has full approvals in place and by mid-year expects to begin processing 100,000t of rock phosphate yearly, earlier than rising its capability to 300,000 tonnes every year (tpa).

In a key transfer, Aguia has ditched plans to construct a processing plant, selecting to take out a long-term lease on a close by plant that requires minor capital to get it up and working.

The fee-saving determination ought to considerably improve the project’s economics contemplating a 2023 feasibility research estimated a standalone 300,000tpa plant would have price about $26m to construct. The research additionally projected $22m in annual EBITDA over an 18-year mine life, with a 2.9-year payback period.

Aguia has a well-funded exploration program and an skilled technical staff on board, guaranteeing it’s now well-positioned to advance Santa Barbara towards a maiden JORC-compliant useful resource estimate.

Is your ASX-listed company doing one thing fascinating? Contact: [email protected]