The Canadian firm, Carube Resources, has already drilled through well over a kilometer of rock in its search for copper and gold in Jamaica.
Over the last three years, the company pumped CAD$3 million into prospecting the Bellas Gate in St. Catherine.
Yet, Carube is still at least five years away from establishing commercial mines.
Nevertheless, the prospects for the firm, and Jamaica, seem promising.
Samples from sections of the area where the search for the valuable metals is taking place show the potential for four kilograms of copper and 0.24 grams of gold per ton of rock.
Gold sells for US$30 a gram, while copper fetches around US$6.60 a kg. So the Connors section of the Bellas Gate area could conceivably yield over US$33 for every ton of rock mined.
Government stands to collect five per cent of that. And the mining company would have to pay taxes.
Carube’s CEO Vern Rampton reckons a mine could also provide local employment for at least 15 years.
But first a prefeasibility study will have to be done. The company hopes to complete one by 2017. Then a comprehensive feasibility study would take another two years. After that, a permit to construct and operate a mine will have to be acquired.
“Once the prefeasibility study comes back positive, then we go to a full feasibility where things are looked at under a microscope to ensure that everything is in place, and if that full feasibility comes back positive, then the decision to mine construction and production occurs,” said Rampton.
The prospector, who started operations in Jamaica in 2011, partnered with Australia-based Oz Minerals earlier this year to take the project forward.
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