Aguia Resources’ (ASX: AGR) wholly owned subsidiary La Fortuna has received all necessary approvals to operate the underground workings and processing facility at the 100%-owned Santa Barbara gold project (Project) located in Bolivar Department, Colombia.
“Aguia’s high-grade Santa Barbara gold project is expected to re-commence underground development imminently with processing of mineralised material scheduled over the coming weeks,” Executive Chairman, Warwick Grigor, said.
“Santa Barbara is an outstanding gold project and shareholders should be reminded that the Mariana and Santa Barbara veins host average gold grades approaching one ounce per tonne and these are the veins on which first mining will focus.
“All stakeholders should be very pleased with the rapid progress we have made since the completion of the Andean Mining takeover only a few months back, which has opened up an exciting future for the company underpinned by an enviable portfolio of projects.”
Underground Development
Underground development will commence on the Mariana and Santa Barbara vein systems within the next few weeks after completion of substantive rehabilitation works.
Previous underground development and mining on the Mariana and Santa Barbara vein systems exposed gold bearing quartz veins with average grades close to one ounce gold per tonne.
A new adit on the Mariana vein system will access the old Mariana mine workings below the historic mined zones. A cross cut from the Santa Barbara workings will connect with the new Mariana development allowing the extraction of all underground development material from the Santa Barbara adit.
The compressed air system has been upgraded at the Santa Barbara adit to provide sufficient compressed air to the underground workings for production drilling.
Process Plant Upgrade
The ompany’s processing facility to treat underground development material, while the processing plant upgrade to 50 tpd capacity is being implemented, has been re-commissioned. The company has commissioned Oro Sinu SAS, a Medellin-based engineering and fabrication company to design and construct a new crushing circuit including a ROM bin, crusher feeders and conveyors to connect the ROM stockpiles with the mill bin.
The crushing circuit will include primary and secondary jaw crushers and a screen allowing for the recirculation of oversize material to the secondary crusher after reporting to a pulveriser tertiary crusher. Oro Sinu has already supplied the company with a thickener and has also been contracted to supply a new Merrill Crowe precipitation system, gold room equipment and several underground two tonne wagons. The Company has also added a further four agitation tanks to the circuit to provide for the increased.