Antilles Gold Ltd (ASX:AAU, OTCQB:ANTMF) has recommended that a cluster of outcropping, large porphyry copper-gold deposits near Ciego de Avila in central Cuba be included in its Los Llanos Exploration Agreement with the Cuban Government’s mining company, GeoMinera SA.
The decision follows a positive report on the deposits from the company’s exploration director Dr Chris Grainger, who reviewed the potential of the cluster to host economical levels of mineralisation.
Antilles has also recommended that these previously explored and highly prospective properties be prioritised for early exploration. The deposits should be drill-ready within a few months.
Potential for "very large open pit prospect"
Antilles Gold executive chair Brian Johnson said that Dr Grainger, who has been a highly successful explorationist in Colombia and other Latin American countries before joining the company, believes the porphyry deposits could collectively become a company maker, and potentially the next project to follow Minera La Victoria’s near-term development of the La Demajagua open pit mine.
The Ciego de Avila Project was originally discovered in the 1990s and has undergone only shallow exploration.
Only a small area of the El Pilar and San Nicholas prospects has been drill tested with reverse circulation (RC) rigs, and even then, only to a depth of 75 metres, targeting gold oxide.
The report states that copper grades are widespread within the gold mineralisation, with surface exposures at the two deposits representing the leached phyllic caps to a cluster of copper-gold porphyry centres.
Sample of El Pilar copper-gold Porphyry Phyllic Cap
Dr Grainger also claims in the report that, given the size of the phyllic alteration zones at surface, the deposits have the potential to host large amounts of metal, potentially surpassing 500 million tonnes.
The report has been submitted to GeoMinera SA, together with the proposed work program and budget through to the end of 2023.
If exploration and studies during this period confirm the development potential for a major open pit mine as Antilles expects, the 212-square-kilometre Mining Concession holding the porphyry system will be transferred to the existing joint venture mining company, Minera La Victoria SA, for further exploration and possible development.
About Antilles Gold
Antilles Gold’s strategy is to participate in the successive development of previously explored gold and copper/gold deposits in mineral rich Cuba and on realising the value of assets it holds in the Dominican Republic.
The near-term project of its joint venture (JV) company, Minera La Victoria SA, is the proposed development of the La Demajagua gold/silver open pit mine on the Isle of Youth in southwest Cuba to produce gold and silver concentrate.
The objective of the JV is to invest part of the surplus cash expected to be generated by the La Demajagua mine to fund projects that follow, in order to achieve organic growth with minimal additional equity contributions, and with the aim of ultimately establishing Minera La Victoria as a substantial mining company in Cuba.