Aguia Resources is poised for the first gold pour at its 100 per cent-owned ultra high-grade Santa Barbara gold project in Colombia’s Bolivar district as work continues to ramp up on the mine development and its processing plant in readiness to treat 50 tonne per day (tpd) of ore for the shiny yellow metal.
The first 25 tonnes of material have now been mined, crushed, milled and loaded into a series of three agitator tanks in preparation of being mixed with the carbon-in-leach solution.
Each tank can hold up to five tonnes of ore at any one time with the company having commissioned a further three tanks allowing production to be increased to 30tpd.
With the addition of a new thickener, currently being installed, the company has plans to further boost production to 50tpd by getting the turnaround time in the tanks down to less than 24 hours.
Aguia has also commissioned a state-of-the-art Merrill Crowe precipitation system for the gold room which has now been delivered to site and should finish off the processing upgrades.
As with its other upgrades at the mine, the new low-cost gold collecting process should pave the way for improved gold recovery once installation has been completed this month.
Underground workings at both the Mariana and Santa Barbara target areas kicked off in early December designed to access a series of rich gold-bearing quartz veins discovered by the previous owners, which appear to run at an uber-high-grade of nearly one ounce of gold per tonne.
Prior work had included upgrading the compressed air system for the mine and the completion of a crosscut passage to connect the Santa Barbara workings to the newer Mariana development. By removing a major bottleneck, the company has significantly improved the mining circuit to allow ore to be removed via the Santa Barbara adit.
With full time underground mining now underway and a first stope expected to be ready by the end of the month, Aguia is also preparing to fire up the drill rigs for a new exploration drilling program later in the quarter.
The main aim of the drill campaign will be to uncover a broader section of the same unusually high-grade gold systems at Mariana and Santa Barbara, which if unearthed, would provide a reliable and easy source of significant high-grade gold ounces.
Aguia Resources executive chairman Warwick Grigor said: “After a period of recommissioning of the pre-existing 30 tpd pilot plant and overcoming a few minor mechanical issues that invariably occur, the focus at Santa Barbara is now on demonstrating the benefits of high-grade gold projects. Ongoing project development and exploration activities will see the company delivering a steady stream of updates over the coming weeks.”
Although Aguia’s primary focus in the past few months has been all about bringing Santa Barbara back online and generating some much-needed short-term cashflow, the company has made significant progress on its plans to also become an organic phosphate producer in southern Brazil.
A recent courtroom win against local ranchers who had sought to block development for six years now means Aguia can move forward with plans to initially produce 100,000tpa and eventually 300,000tpa of organic rock phosphate from its Tres Estradas mine in southern Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul.
A 2023 bankable feasibility study - backed by strong economics - concluded that by producing 300,000tpa across an 18-year mine life with capital expenditure of $26 million, the project would spit out $22m a year in EBITDA. The payback period is anticipated to be 2.9 years on the back of a significant 54.7 per cent internal rate of return.
In a recent development however, the company has struck a game-changing deal to lease an existing plant rather than build one from scratch. The move slashes the $26 million capex estimate to virtually nothing, thereby supercharging the already robust project economics and the rate of return.
Twelve months ago, Aguia was bogged down in a long-term legal stoush regarding its Brazilian phosphate operations. With cash drawdown from the lawyers seemingly burning a hole in its pocket, the company was in dire straits and with limited options to move forward.
Since then, and under the strong stewardship of its chairman Warwick Grigor, Aguia now has two near-term cash flow projects on the go with only minor capital expenditure remaining.
It appears the company has finally found its groove and can indeed look forward to a happy, and potentially extremely prosperous 2025.
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By James Pearson
