Equitas Resources (EQT.V) has recently closed the acquisition of the Cajueiro gold project in Brazil and didn’t waste any time to advance the project as fast as possible. Last week, the company filed an updated NI43-101 compliant technical report on the property with a resource estimate containing 417,000 ounces of gold in the sulphide zones and an additional 78,000 ounces of gold in the saprolite and oxide zones.
That’s a good start, but more ounces and a higher grade would definitely be welcome to boost the eventual economics of the project, and that’s why Equitas won’t waste any time and has already started an exploration program on the properties. This exploration program will focus on expanding the mineralized zones in the Baldo area as the company has identified major structures trending towards the north-east with a total strike length of approximately 650 meters.
Equitas has now initiated the process to direct a drill rig to the site which will complete 1,600 meters of diamond drilling, whilst the company will also complete 700 meters of trenching. As the drill cost per meter is still very low, Equitas thinks the total all-in cost for the 1,600 meter drill program will be comfortably lower than $200,000, considering the cost per meter will be ‘under $100’. This will allow Equitas to get a lot of work done at a relatively minimal cash expense.
Additionally, Equitas would also like to complete a bulk sampling program, and is currently allowed to dig out 50,000 tonnes per year as part of a bulk sampling program. This bulk sample program will be very important as three of the previous four bulk samples revealed an average grade of well in excess of 2 g/t gold which is much higher than the average grade of the sulphide zone, but quite a bit lower than the grade of the inferred saprolite zone.
‘full speed ahead’ seems to be the new company slogan, and we’re looking forward to see more updates on the exploration and production plans, as Equitas is now converting itself from being an explorer to a gold producer in South America.
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The author has no position in Equitas Resources. Equitas is not a sponsor of the website, but Zimtu Capital is. Please read the disclaimer
