Flagship Minerals (ASX:FLG) is advancing its Pantanillo Gold Project in northern Chile with the ambitious goal of producing 100,000 ounces of gold annually for over a decade. The company intends to achieve this target by delineating sufficient mineral resources to support the development of the project, focusing on open-pit mining and heap leach processing methods. Flagship is prioritizing the conversion and expansion of the existing foreign resource estimate to a JORC-compliant resource, which will involve validating prior drill data, conducting confirmatory and infill drilling, and undertaking further metallurgical testing.
Managing Director Paul Lock emphasizes that Pantanillo offers a substantial gold inventory with favorable metallurgy. The focus is on oxide mineralization amenable to heap leach processing, which he says can position Flagship for low-capex gold production with high operating margins. Metallurgical reviews have confirmed high gold recoveries via cyanidation of crushed material, with column leach tests achieving up to 85.5% recovery from oxide material. Flagship plans confirmatory heap leach tests for future financial modeling and optimization. The Pantanillo Project, situated in the Maricunga Gold Belt, currently hosts 47.4 million tonnes @ 0.69 grams per tonne gold, totaling 1.05 million ounces of gold.
