Above ground, the existing 30tpd processing facility has been re-commissioned to handle material from underground development while the upgrades to increase its capacity to 50tpd are underway.

Oro Sinu SAS, a Medellin-based engineering and fabrication company, has been contracted to design and construct a new crushing circuit.

The expanded circuit includes a run-of-mine bin, crusher feeders, conveyors, primary and secondary jaw crushers, a screen and a tertiary pulveriser crusher to manage oversized material. Four new agitation tanks have also been added which will allow for increased gold production.

Already purchased ancillary equipment, to be supplied by Oro Sinu, includes a thickener, a Merrill Crowe precipitation system, gold room equipment and several underground two-tonne wagons.

The company has expanded site infrastructure to accommodate a bigger workforce at site, including enlarging the existing camp and constructing a new containerised camp with facilities such as a laboratory, medical centre and offices.

Aguia’s primary focus in the past few months has been all about bringing Santa Barbara back online and generating some much-needed, short-term cashflow, however, the company has recently made some significant progress on its plan to also become an organic phosphate producer in southern Brazil.

After recently winning a six-year legal stoush with local ranchers who had tried to block production of ore from its Tres Estradas mine in Rio Grande do Sul, in Brazil, the company revealed it has also locked away a long-term lease on a processing plant that only needs minimal expenditure to get up to speed.

With the full environmental approvals in its back pocket, Aguia believes it is on track now to produce 100,000 tonnes of rock phosphate per year by mid-2025, eventually ramping up to 300,000t per annum.

A 2023 bankable feasibility study - backed by strong economics - concluded that by producing 300,000 tonnes per annum across an 18-year mine life, with capital expenditure of $26 million, the project would spit out $22m a year in EBITDA. The payback period is anticipated to be 2.9 years on the back of a significant 54.7 per cent internal rate of return.

Notably, the company has inked a deal to lease an existing plant, rather than build its own which means the $26m capital expenditure assumption should be reduced to an almost negligible number, making the economics and rate of return even better.

Aguia has always regarded itself as an exploration business with two near-term cash flow opportunities, notwithstanding the regulatory hurdles and high capital expenditure that have always been the inhibiting factors. The past two months, however, appear to have proved seminal for the mining hopeful. To paraphrase a well-worn idiom, fortune nearly always conspires to favour the brave.

Aquia is looking brave right now.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au