Aguia’s Santa Barbara mine reaches a first cost-covering month

Santa Barbara reaches first cost-covering month

Aguia Resources Limited (ASX:AGR) has reached a modest but important operating milestone at Santa Barbara: September production covered the Colombian operation’s corporate and operating costs for the first time. The project produced 36.75 troy ounces of gold from 105 dry tonnes of run-of-mine material, generating a stated gross market value of AUD$218,000 at a gold price of US$4,135 an ounce.

The result edges above the previous month’s approximately 32 ounces and marks Santa Barbara’s record monthly output. It also extends a run of improving operating data, following the company’s June gold production increase, which delivered 851.9 grams from 100 tonnes processed. The scale remains small, however: one month of production covering local costs is not yet evidence of a self-sustaining mine at commercial scale.

High grades meet third-party processing

September’s mined material carried an average head grade of 10.88 g/t gold, while a more recent batch under assessment returned 12.75 g/t. All 105 tonnes were sent to the Quintana Processing Plant in Remedios, operated by Colombian Mint, rather than processed through an Aguia-owned facility.

Colombian Mint recovered 1,143.07 grams of gold and 2,124 grams of payable silver. Under the arrangement, Aguia receives 90% of the gold produced after processing costs of US$65 per tonne. That means the AUD$218,000 figure should be read as gross market value rather than a direct measure of net revenue or cash generation.

Equipment purchase sets up a doubling of throughput

Aguia has bought additional mining equipment to develop three shafts below the main levels of Veins 1 and 2, alongside extraction fans intended to improve post-blast ventilation. The company says the measures support a plan to increase production from roughly 100 tonnes a month to more than 200 tonnes a month by the end of 2026, or before the first quarter of 2027.

The expansion is being paired with a 15% reduction in the mine workforce to lower operating costs. The company also says it intends to resume exploration to support a Mineral Resource Estimate, but its JORC disclosure states that the current data spacing is not sufficient for one. Santa Barbara therefore remains an operating project with encouraging grades, not yet a defined mineral resource.

Aguia is due to provide a separate update on its Brazilian phosphate assets next week, with sales from stockpiled material beginning to materialise while operations continue. That update matters because the company is running a two-commodity portfolio: Santa Barbara is improving operationally, but the Colombian mine’s current output is still too limited to carry the broader story on its own.