Photo by Rene Böhmer

13th December 2021

Cuba is to begin a technical and economic feasibility study of a gold deposit estimated at about eight tons in ten veins in Loma Jacinto in Camagüey province.

According to experts at Cuba’s Ministry of Energy and Mines, the concentration, the second largest in the country, could yield hundreds of millions of dollars, if further studies indicate that an estimated 7.6 tons can be mined viably.

Speaking in Havana, Enrique Piñero, the head of the Camagüey Geomining Company, was quoted by Cubadebate as saying that the studies indicated that the find was of industrial importance and that the 7.6 tons “can be transferred to proven and probable reserves” for possible exploitation. The technical and economic feasibility study will allow the cost of investment, the equipment, workforce, and the technology required to be defined, he said.

The vein system at Loma Jacinto is located some 30km from the town of Guáimaro and is the most-studied gold deposit in the country. Cubadebate reported that it had been shown studies relating to three of the veins, El Limón Nuevo, Beatriz, Sur de Elena, and software modelling showing their extension, depth, and possible yield.

Piñero told the online official publication that there were a further seven veins that are still under study and have potential, but the three veins that had been identified were of industrial importance, as they had quartz associated with gold mineralisation.

It additionally quoted Marcela Figueredo, the Director General of Research at the Centre for the Mining and the Metallurgical Industry, as saying that pilot tests had shown that ,in Jacinto, a doré will be obtained, an impure mixture that, when refined, results in gold with very few impurities. “It is a ‘noble’ gold, fine and ultra-fine, not accompanied by polluting elements”, she told the online platform.   

Cubadebate noted that, for the Jacinto gold deposit, pulp coal leaching technology has been proposed, a widely applied international method for the exploitation of gold. “We have a similar plant in Villa Clara, so we have the experience to achieve an investment and the knowledge of technologists on how to operate it. And the mineral in Jacinto is simpler than that”, Figueredo said.

Earlier this year, Australia’s Antilles Gold announced the discovery of high concentrations of gold and silver in the La Demajagua open-pit mine on the Isla de la Juventud (Full details Cuba Briefing 29 March 2021).

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