Cabral Gold (TSXV: CBR) has received the operating license for the first phase of its Cuiú Cuiú gold project in Brazil, clearing the last regulatory hurdle standing between the developer and its first gold pour.
The license, granted by Pará state environmental authority SEMAS, provides the regulatory consent required to use cyanide in the leaching process, and covers the mining of gold-in-oxide ore and stacking on the heap leach pads. Brazilian military authorities have separately approved the procurement and transport of cyanide.
Construction is now nearing completion, as per Cabral. The ADR leach processing plant arrived on site in late July and mechanical assembly is now complete, with electrical installation more than 90% finished. Commissioning is underway under Como Engineering and Strategic Metallurgy and is expected to conclude in late September.
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Ore meanwhile is being stacked on the first leach pad, and irrigation should begin within days. A second pad is due for completion by the end of August, subsurface collection systems for pads three and four are finished, and an on-site analytical laboratory has been built.
First gold is now anticipated in September, which is roughly six weeks ahead of schedule, with commercial production expected in the fourth quarter.
“I am particularly pleased that we have received our Operating License together with the cyanide permit,” said President and Chief Executive Officer Alan Carter. “Mechanical assembly of the ADR plant is also now complete, which represents another major milestone. The focus regarding commissioning has now moved from the dry to the wet processing circuit.”
Phase 1 of the Cuiú Cuiú gold mine has been designed as a gold-in-oxide heap leach starter operation built around near-surface weathered material that requires no blasting and runs on a 60-day leach cycle across four pads. An updated prefeasibility study pegs average annual output at roughly 18,500 ounces over a 6.2-year life, or about 113,000 ounces in total, at all-in sustaining costs of US$1,210 an ounce and initial capital of US$37.7 million.
Cabral Gold last traded at $1.26 on the TSX Venture.
