Aguia Resources Doubles Gold Output to Record 942g at 10g/t in August
Key Takeaways
- August 2026 delivered 942 grams of gold at above 10 g/t Au — more than double the previous record of 468 grams set just six months earlier in February 2026.
- A third-party processing trial with Colombian Mint's Quintana Plant returned 637.37 grams of payable gold from a 50-tonne parcel grading 15.05 g/t Au, generating approximately A$123,200 in gold revenue alone.
- Total Santa Barbara revenue for August 2026 reached approximately A$171,000 — from a project still operating at only 100 tonnes per month.
- A new shaft completed in August 2026 contributed directly to the improved plant head grade of 15 g/t Au, with staged production targets of 150 and then 200+ tonnes per month targeted over the next 90–120 days.
- More than two-thirds of the Santa Barbara property remains unexplored with modern techniques, with exploration drilling planned to test broader resource potential beyond the current production area.
Record month for Santa Barbara as production and grade hit new highs
Aguia Resources (ASX: AGR) has reported the strongest production result in the history of the Santa Barbara gold project, with August 2026 delivering both record output and record grade in the same month. This is not an incremental improvement — production more than doubled relative to the previous best result, recorded just six months earlier.
The headline metrics from August 2026:
- 942 grams of gold (~32 ounces) produced, grading above 10 g/t Au
- Previous best: 468 grams at approximately 5 g/t Au (February 2026)
- Plant feed grade reached 20.4 g/t Au in June 2026
- March 2026 recovery result: 89.6% from a 3.06 g/t Au feed
The step-change in both grade and volume reflects underground mining improvements that have reduced dilution and supported the consistent delivery of high-grade run-of-mine ore. The company notes that August production was based on only 100 tonnes of mined material, meaning the improvement was driven by grade quality, not volume.
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Third-party processing trial validates high-grade ore and generates near-term revenue
Alongside the record production result, Aguia completed a third-party processing trial during the period. In the first week of September 2026, the company delivered a 50-tonne ore parcel to the Quintana Processing Plant in Remedios, Antioquia. The facility is operated by Colombian Mint, part of the Sun Valley Investments group.
Under the arrangement, Aguia receives 90% of recovered gold after processing charges of US$65 per tonne. Internal assays for the parcel reported a head grade of 15.05 g/t Au, with the following returns:
| Metric | Figure | Unit | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Head grade | 15.05 | g/t Au | Internal assay |
| Payable gold | 637.37 | grams (20.492 oz) | After processing charges |
| Gold revenue | ~A$123,200 | AUD | Stated value |
| Payable silver | 1,226.8 | grams | Included in parcel return |
Including revenue from locally processed material, total revenue from Santa Barbara for August 2026 was approximately A$171,000. That figure, from a project still operating at only 100 tonnes per month, gives a clear indication of what improved grades can mean for cash generation at scale.
Managing Director and CEO, Timothy Hoskings
“August’s record production and grade represent an important step forward for Santa Barbara. The third-party processing trial with Colombian Mint delivered a strong payable gold return from our high-grade ore and provides a potential pathway to support near-term cash flow while our team remains focused on underground development, dilution control and the selective extraction of higher-grade material. We are encouraged that the month’s performance better reflects the quality and potential of the project. Our immediate priority is to build production in a disciplined manner toward approximately 200 tonnes per month, while maintaining grade and advancing plans for exploration drilling to test the broader resource potential we believe exists at Santa Barbara.”
Understanding gold grade and why it matters for small-scale miners
The significance of these results depends on understanding what “grade” actually means in gold mining, and why a doubling of grade has an outsized impact at a project of this size.
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Grade (g/t Au) determines revenue per tonne. Grade refers to grams of gold contained in every tonne of rock mined and processed. At 10 g/t Au, each tonne of ore contains roughly ten times more gold than ore grading 1 g/t Au. Higher grade means more gold extracted from the same volume of material, which directly increases revenue without requiring proportionally more mining activity.
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Dilution destroys grade — and profitability. Dilution occurs when low-grade or waste rock is inadvertently mixed with ore during extraction. Even a small amount of dilution can dramatically reduce the average grade of material reaching the processing plant, cutting the gold recovered per tonne and compressing margins. Reducing dilution is one of the most effective levers a small-scale operation has to improve financial performance.
Santa Barbara’s record output with 57% cost reduction earlier in 2026 demonstrated how dilution control and selective breast mining compound: the same underground improvements that lifted grade also reduced the cost of producing each recovered ounce.
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Selective underground mining targets the highest-grade zones. Rather than extracting large volumes indiscriminately, selective breast mining focuses on the highest-grade areas within the ore body, leaving lower-grade material behind. This approach preserves grade quality at the cost of slower volume growth, but it maximises revenue per tonne at a stage when processing capacity is limited.
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A shift from ~5 g/t to 10+ g/t is proportionally significant. For a small-scale operation like Santa Barbara, a doubling of grade effectively doubles revenue per tonne processed. At this scale, that difference separates a project generating modest cash flow from one that can meaningfully fund its own development.
For investors, this context matters because it explains why the August result carries more weight than the production volume alone suggests. Grade improvement at this scale has a direct and immediate impact on margins.
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Path to 200 tonnes per month and what comes next
The company’s near-term focus is a staged, disciplined increase in monthly production volumes. Key priorities outlined in the announcement include:
- Staged production targets of 100 → 150 → 200+ tonnes per month over the next 90–120 days
- Completion of a new shaft in August 2026, which contributed to the improved plant head grade of 15 g/t Au that month
- Selective breast mining continuing in stopes connected between shafts
- Third-party processing to continue while the performance of this strategy is monitored before the company reassesses operating arrangements at its own plant
- Exploration drilling planned to test the broader resource potential at Santa Barbara
- More than two-thirds of the property remains unexplored with modern techniques
The production roadmap is deliberately measured. Aguia is targeting volume growth while maintaining grade quality, rather than chasing tonnes at the expense of the per-tonne economics that made August’s result significant.
The exploration upside adds a longer-term dimension for investors watching the project. Santa Barbara is early-stage, but the combination of demonstrated high-grade ore, new underground infrastructure, and a large untested property gives the company multiple potential catalysts beyond the near-term production ramp. How consistently the grade holds as volumes increase, and what exploration drilling reveals across the unexplored portions of the tenement, will be the milestones worth tracking in the months ahead.
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