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ReGIonAL RoUnD-UP

Antilles finds its Cuban rhythm

ntilles Gold Ltd’s ambitious plans to be- ernment invited Antilles to enter the project. and you see several Australian gold miners
Acome the first Australian miner to pro- Johnson said experience with refrac- doing the same. We will have samples out in
duce gold in Cuba took another step forward tory orebodies – under the previous guise of October-November.”
last month with completion of a 15,000m re- PanTerra Gold it had operated the Las La- Antilles plans to use La Demajagua as
source drill-out programme on its La Dema- gunas gold tailings project in the Dominican the classic starter project, producing enough
jagua project. Republic – made Antilles a good fit for La De- cash to fund its wider plans in the Caribbean
Antilles will put results from the programme majagua. nation.
together with 50,000m of historical drilling Antilles’ plan was to produce an initial “We have got enough properties under our
data to produce a maiden JORC-complaint resource in October before launching a belt to reinvest cashflow from the first project
resource for La Demajagua, which was 10,000m infill programme in early 2022 to and we can get growing from there,” Johnson
mined in the early 20th century and was sub- lift confidence in the open pit resource. How- said. “We have five other sulphide gold pro-
ject of several feasibility studies in the 1990s. ever, given the success of Stage 1, the com- jects within a 15km radius of each other which
The company is confident of producing a pany is considering bringing its infill campaign were explored by TSX company Macdonald
high-grade resource with the latest round of forward. Mines in the 1990s.
assay results including hits of 15m @ 4.76 g/t “[That] could result in a similar saving in “We also have a letter of intent which allows
gold and 85.95 g/t silver from 102m, 9m @ time for the finalisation of the DFS, and the us to review six copper-gold properties which
8.09 g/t gold and 92.49 g/t silver from 131.3m, development decision for the La Demajagua have seen small-scale mining and historical
26m @ 4.75 g/t gold from 32.5m, 13m @ 6.57 mine,” Johnson said. “Hopefully we will begin exploration.”
g/t gold from 145m, 12m @ 5.11 g/t gold from construction in the last quarter of 2022 with All three projects are held in a 49:51 JV
81m and 20m @ 4.36 g/t gold from 110m. commissioning starting before the end of with state mining company GeoMinera SA.
Further results are expected to filter through 2023.” Despite the minority interest, communist re-
this month with the resource statement target- Johnson sees presentation of an economic gime and US sanctions, Johnson said he had
ed for release in October. case for La Demajagua as crucial to Antilles found Cuba a welcoming place for miners.
While the resource would be the first of- given the lack of investor knowledge about “It is a very mineral-rich country with quite a
ficial estimate placed on the project, Antilles Cuba as an investment destination. significant number of copper, gold and nickel
executive chairman Brian Johnson is insistent “One we have results in a few months we deposits,” he said. “There has been explora-
the La Demajagua is far from a greenfields can start talking about the strong cashflow tion by Canadian, Russian and US groups but
exploration project. which could come from the project,” he said. it is still vastly underexplored.
“The fiscal regime we have negotiated is
fantastic with a whole range of concessions
on things like VAT. I’d rather invest in Cuba
than many other regions around the world. It
is well set out, there are no labour issues and
while the administrative process can be frus-
trating at times you can deal with it and there
is no corruption.”
With international mining groups once
again looking at the island, Johnson believes
Antilles is in an advantageous position.
“We’re well regarded in Cuba, that’s why
we have got the additional projects and I hon-
estly believe we are at the forefront of a new
industry,” he said. “Canadian and Chinese
groups are knocking on the door, but we are
in a good spot.”
Antilles Gold recently completed a 15,000m drilling programme on its La Demajagua project The Canadian interest gives an indica-
in Cuba tion of where Antilles is likely to find funding
support. Johnson said the bullish outlook for
“This is no exploration play, it is a great op- “Cuba is a fairly hard sell but as people bet- domestic projects meant many Australian
portunity for immediate development with a ter appreciate the potential profitability of this groups were deaf to opportunities in higher-
walk-up start,” Johnson told Paydirt. “There project there will be more interest.” risk jurisdictions like Cuba but he has already
is 50,000m of historical work which indicates While there is still metallurgical testwork to found North American investors more sym-
the viability of the project. We are confident of complete, Johnson already plans to produce pathetic.
getting the resource to the higher end of the a sulphide gold concentrate, reducing the “Australians are making easy money out
exploration target of 2 moz, with 1 moz in the stress of refractory recoveries. of projects in Western Australia so there’s no
open pit.” “We will build a flotation circuit to produce appetite for Cuba,” he said. “The two or three
Johnson was first attracted to the project in a sulphide concentrate that we will sell, prob- brokers I’ve spoken to in Canada have no is-
2014 but had been beaten to it by internation- ably to smelters in Russia or international sue with Cuba and I expect our future capital
al metals trader Trafigura. When the Swiss trading companies,” Johnson said. “There is raisings will be focused in that market.”
group walked away in 2019, the Cuban Gov- a lot of interest in sulphide gold concentrates
– Dominic Piper

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