Aguia Resources has put the broom through its Santa Barbara gold operation in Colombia, slashing site headcount to twenty-five people, switching to one-shift batch processing and lifting December recoveries to about 70 per cent.
The company says December gold sales will be about $120,000, with an average realised gold price of $5,949 per ounce and sales and margins expected to lift from here as it targets recovery rates above 80 per cent over the coming months.
Aguia Resources chief executive officer Tim Hosking said "We have moved swiftly to implement key changes at Santa Barbara which is yielding promising results very quickly. Getting our processes and metallurgy right and now having the right team in place on site provides the basis for a much-improved operation. This has been a critical milestone for us."
The December reset followed an operational audit of Santa Barbara by experienced Canadian mining engineer Ken Nipius, which pushed Aguia towards quick wins in process control and circuit performance, without a big capital blowout.
Aguia says it has cut staffing by more than half to a single shift of 25 people, while keeping production steady. The company has also reverted to batch-processing settings that worked in earlier trials and reintroduced a pre-conditioning step before cyanidation using caustic soda and hydrogen peroxide to improve dissolution and reduce tailings grades.
Santa Barbara is a high-grade, narrow-vein system, so the margin for error is thin and Aguia is now leaning harder into selective mining and selective stockpiling to keep feed grades up and dilution down. This month, it expects to mine about 400 tonnes grading a respectable 5-7 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, and says selective stockpiling has lifted some of the mill head grades to as high as 13.67 g/t.
Early December test batches have been doing the heavy lifting. A 23-tonne run produced 80 grams of gold at better than 70 per cent efficiency. A shorter-cycle test that omitted pre-treatment prior to cyanide leaching slipped to about 36 per cent efficiency, underlining why the company is now pre-treating the pulp.
After restructuring, Aguia says it processed 73.2 tonnes of stockpiled ore within 10 operational days, delivering a 45 per cent improvement in recovery over the July-November average. The immediate goal is to push recoveries through the 80 per cent mark, then lift tonnages so the operation moves from “proof of process” into something with more meaningful cash flow.
The short-term plan is to keep small-scale underground development and batch processing humming, aiming to treat 100-150 tonnes each month and lift plant feed to 15 grams per tonne gold or better by the first quarter of 2026. Aguia also plans to send 50 tonnes of low-to-medium-grade ore to a Colombian Mint plant in Antioquia for an independent processing benchmark to sharpen its view of future processing costs.
That operational discipline is also planned to restart exploration. Earlier in the year, Aguia reported a new vein discovery in artisanal workings that it believes may connect two main vein sets, hinting at a larger stockwork-style system. Channel samples from that newly identified vein returned 18.6 g/t, 16.49 g/t and 9.51 g/t gold, giving management more reasons to want the drill rods turning again.
Aguia has flagged further exploration drilling from the September quarter of 2026, aligning that spend with broader cash generation from its Brazilian phosphate business. Três Estradas in southern Brazil is tracking towards an operating licence early next year and first sales by mid-2026, with letters of intent signed for 54,000 tonnes of its premium PAMPAFOS product across Rio Grande do Sul and Uruguay.
Aguia has also been trimming distractions, agreeing earlier this month to divest its non-core Atocha silver project in Colombia for C$1 million in cash on closing and a retained 25 per cent equity position on a future liquidity event.
For Aguia, Santa Barbara’s December clean-up is about far more than a few extra ounces. The company has now shown it can control the process, lift recoveries and generate cash without throwing capital at the problem.
If Aguia can push recoveries beyond 80 per cent and steadily lift throughput, Santa Barbara should start to look like a genuine platform for growth. Add in a looming Brazilian phosphate cash engine and a slimmed-down Colombian portfolio, and the pieces are falling into place for a far more focused and financially resilient 2026.
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