Aguia fires up gold processing at high-grade | Australian Markets

Small-cap gold miner Aguia Resources is making a large splash at its Santa Barbara project in Colombia, with gold now flowing, a maiden drilling marketing campaign on the launchpad and processing upgrades coming thick and fast.

The company is often mining 15 tonnes per day (tpd) from its underground workings by means of to an onsite processing plant and is on its strategy to a 50tpd uplift by July. All the early indicators are stacking up for it to realize persistently high-grade gold.

Trial mining by earlier operator Boyateca confirmed head grades of up to 24 grams per tonne (g/t) gold. Aguia is seeing comparable outcomes from its present operations. While an official grade reconciliation is pending, Aguia expects the recovered grades to reflect the historic outcomes.

The present processing plant is geared to deal with 30tpd and Aguia plans to double its mining output to match that capability by mid-May. The doubling of throughput will come on the back of two key upgrades. The company is close to finishing a new 5.5-kilometre water pipeline to allow a regular water circulate for processing and the ultimate piece of underground scraping gear to ramp up vein extraction charges is being commissioned.

All the gear for the enhancements is onsite and must be able to go earlier than the tip of the month, paving the best way for the company to maneuver onto its subsequent milestone goal of scaling up to 50tpd throughput by July.

To hit its larger processing goal, Aguia is banking on the upcoming arrival of a main crusher. The new gear is the final lacking half in a crushing circuit that already contains secondary and tertiary models, which have boosted capability to 30tpd.

When the new unit is in play and underground feed ramps up, Aguia says it’s quietly assured the new circuit can have the scope to exceed its design capability. This would enable the company to raise output effectively past its initial targets.

Turning to the financials, Aguia just lately accomplished a $3 million placement to an Asian primarily based institutional fund and must be comfortably funded till money circulate begins to kick in.

The company has jumped a crucial bureaucratic hurdle by securing full authorities approval to promote its gold domestically and internationally.

The timing of the federal government stamp of approval had been an unknown amount, however having it now permits Aguia to get on with its first gold gross sales towards a backdrop of hovering gold costs, at present nipping at the heels of all-time highs at US$3400 (A$5223) per ounce.

Aguia has been very environment friendly in its use of capital and achieved a stage of success on a very tight price range at the Santa Barbara gold project. Having our CEO William Howe in nation during this course of has been instrumental to the success to date. We at the moment are at the inflection level past which we count on to be incomes vital money.

The company expects to fire up a 25-hole maiden diamond drilling program at Santa Barbara subsequent week. The first drill marketing campaign on the project is designed to check beneath present workings in addition to alongside strike. The company expects the drill bit to intersect recognized high-grade veins and doubtlessly uncover new ones.

Management is happy at the prospect of discovering any treasures lurking beneath the mine’s rugged floor. If drilling confirms the continuity and grade of the underground veins, Aguia may discover itself sitting on a a lot bigger prize than it initially thought.

The assay information will type the idea of an all-important maiden JORC useful resource, focused for later this 12 months.

Most of Aguia’s time previously few months has been centered on bringing Santa Barbara back online and producing some juicy money circulate. The company has additionally moved ahead on its plan to turn out to be an natural phosphate producer from its Pampafos deposit, which is a component of its Três Estrades project in southern Brazil.

In a shrewd play to sidestep the hefty $26M price tag outlined in final 12 months’s feasibility examine, the company secured a 10-year lease on the totally practical Dagoberto Barcelos processing plant, which is 100km from Três Estradas.

The transfer comes with a affordable month-to-month price and a one-off BRL$5M (A$1.36M) cost, giving Aguia a fast-track path to manufacturing with out the financial sting of building a plant from scratch.

The authentic examine tipped the project to churn out $22M in annual EBITDA with a fast 2.9-year payback at its full 300,000tpa capability.

Aguia plans to turbocharge the prevailing 100,000tpa facility by putting in a hammer mill and second dryer – minor upgrades that would triple throughput and convey these projections within hanging distance.

Feedstock will initially come from Pampafos, however Aguia is already drilling its close by Mato Grande and Passo Feio prospects, simply 3km and 8km from the plant respectively, aiming to slash transport prices and increase margins. A second processing facility can be on the playing cards, doubtlessly setting up a multi-plant phosphate play to fulfill the booming demand for natural fertilisers in-country.

With Santa Barbara beginning to hit its straps and Três Estradas simply warming up to turn out to be a second vital money circulate stream within the subsequent few months, Aquia seems to have lastly moved on from its cash-constricting construction section. The company appears to be firmly on an upward cashflow producing trajectory.

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