Aguia Resources will kick off surface exploration at its prospective Atocha gold-silver project in Colombia, in a bid to generate new drilling targets at the site where high-grade gold and silver have been identified.
Previous rock chip sampling returned gold grades of 19.9 grams per tonne (g/t), 14.65g/t and 14.2g/t, in addition to silver assays up to 3480g/t.
The project, which has also returned promising lead, zinc and tungsten grades, sits on 2584.05 hectares in the municipality of Falan, 190 kilometres west of the capital, Bogota.
The program will begin work in the project’s northeastern corner, following up known mineralised corridors to generate some new drill targets.
Aguia’s primary exploration target, Veta Grande east, is identified as a vein-type orogenic epizonal intrusion-related gold system. Prospecting and rock chip sampling in 2013-14 returned impressive high-grade samples, including 19.9g/t gold and stellar silver grades in further rock chips, grading 2300g/t, 1955g/t, 1570g/t and 1370g/t silver.
From 2021 to 2023, the project was operated by Canadian explorer Baroyeca Gold & Silver, which drilled 43 diamond drill holes for 5083 metres at its highly prospective La Ye target.
The better intervals consisted of 0.8m going 20.14g/t gold and 723g/t silver for a silver-equivalent grade of 2233.5g/t and a 0.5m hit grading 13.11g/t gold and 153.8g/t silver for a silver-equivalent grade of 1137.05g/t. A further 0.6m slice at 4.51g/t gold and 364g/t silver rounded out the excellent numbers.
Baroyeca conducted a phase one program at La Ye that produced 25 intercepts grading more than a significant 7.6g/t gold-equivalent, or 200g/t silver-equivalent, at a width greater than 0.5m.
It followed this up with a phase two program at La Ye West, in which 25m step-out drill holes delineated a mineralised shoot with several strong mineralised hits towards the northeast.
Silver-equivalent grades comprised 0.64m at 447.38g/t from 71.6m and 0.4m going 304.68g/t from a depth of 48m.
Aguia Resources executive chairman Warwick Grigor said: “The Atocha project sits in the richest colonial primary silver district in Colombia and accounts for one of the highest grades in the world. With very impressive grades from both those obtained by the previous operator and the surrounding tenements, it is clear that Aguia holds a key position in the area with impressive potential that is under-explored.”
The company also released an updated independent technical report on the project, evaluating the geology, mineralisation and mineral potential of its ground.
At the Veta NW prospect, the previous operators sampled a series of chips from exposures of the gold-bearing vein. To the northwest, the vein is exposed in a tributary creek about 100m outside the western boundary of the project ground. The vein within the project boundary was covered by thick gravel.
Solid rock chip grades of 9g/t gold and 1030g/t silver, 19.9g/t gold and 311g/t silver and 7.1g/t gold with 525g/t silver were identified.
Additional veins across the project grounds show similar mineralisation styles and comparable grades, and Aguia will now follow them up with further work.
Aguia’s flagship Santa Barbara gold project is about 1.5 hours’ drive from Atocha.
The company recently plunged the first two holes of a 25-hole campaign into Santa Barbara and struck mineralised quartz veins and key fault structures. The hits appear to confirm its geological model and point to a potentially much bigger gold system.
The company released an internal study in April estimating a head-turning exploration target of two to four million tonnes of material grading up to 30g/t gold at Santa Barbara. Its small processing plant has had a facelift and is now churning out 30 tonnes per day of ore. That figure is expected to leap to 50tpd by July when a new primary crusher comes online.
Aguia also holds the Tres Estradas phosphate project in Brazil, where the company plans to eventually pump out 300,000tpa of product.
It is eyeing processing operations beginning in January next year on its organic phosphate product, Pampafos. Recent field trials showed Pampafos rivals the performance of top-shelf imported fertilisers at a fraction of their price.
Aguia recently leased a processing plant in Caçapava do Sul from century-old agricultural limestone firm Dagoberto Barcellos SAS. That may turn out to be a genius move, as it avoids the need for a capital raise for a new plant and its considerable associated shareholder dilution.
Aguia secured a 10-year lease on the fully operational Dagoberto Barcellos processing plant for what appears to be a modest $43,000 monthly fee and a one-off payment of $1.36 million.
Management believes the outcome was significantly better, in terms of time and money saved, than spending $30 million on a new production facility to achieve the same capacity.
After a $1.97 million refurb and small capital expenditure outlay at the mine site, local mine services firm Contrasaper is expected to turbocharge mining activities at the project.
Aguia is building up a range of solid-looking projects in South America. If they come to fruition as planned, it may place the company well and truly in the sights of market punters and investors.
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By Craig Nolan
