Carube Copper Corp, which is responsible for gold and copper mining projects in Jamaica and Canada, says it will begin mining at Bellas Gate in St Catherine in April of this year, following studies which promise several productive zones.

Carube, led by President and CEO Jeffrey Ackert, BSc (Geology), last week released investor information which described the Bellas Gate project in Jamaica as Carube’s core asset. The company said its recent review of exploration data has aided in the identification of numerous highly prospective copper-gold targets.

Carube Copper Corp is a Canadian copper-gold exploration company focused on the discovery and development of copper and gold in both Jamaica and Canada. Its wholly owned Jamaican assets include 11 copper-gold licences covering more than 535 km2 of what it describes as the most prospective regions of the island’s emerging copper-gold district.

The company says it has aggressive plans to drill a variety of high priority targets in 2017. More than US$15 million in exploration work has been completed at the project in Bellas Gate, including high-resolution magnetic and radiometric airborne surveys, 46 line kilometres of IP surveys, over 10,000 soil samples, 400 rock chips and more than 17,000 metres of core drilling.

The company plans to begin drilling at Bellas Gate in April 2017, including the high-priority Provost, Provost SE, Hendley, and Connor SE targets.

The work done to date, the company said, confirms the existence of at least seven significant Cu/Au porphyry systems at the St Catherine site.

“The porphyry distribution found at Bellas Gate is similar to that found in the Northparkes mining district of New South Wales, Australia. Rio Tinto sold Northparkes to China Molybdenum in 2013 for US$820 million,” Carube stated in its release.

Carube notes that Jamaica’s geology is similar to that of Chile, Argentina and the Dominican Republic — all productive mining jurisdictions.

The Jamaica project includes seven copper-gold projects totalling 536 km2 . In Canada Carube has three copper-gold-molybdenum projects in an emerging copper-gold porphyry belt.

At the Main Ridge Project in Jamaica, the company says, porphyry-type copper and high-grade gold mineralisation have been identified.

Carube lists its other important zones as including the former Pennants gold mine, Orange Hill, Trout Hall and Ballard’s River. It is also considering projects in Guy’s Hill.