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The Australian mining company Antilles Gold Limited requested the temporary suspension of trading of its shares from the Australian Stock Exchange on Friday while it prepares a statement for its shareholders regarding the impact of the sanctions imposed by Washington on its joint venture in Cuba.
The trading halt will be extended until the company publishes that report or, at the latest, until the start of the day on June 10.
"In accordance with ASX Listing Rule 17.1, Antilles Gold Limited requests an immediate suspension of the trading of its securities on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), pending an announcement regarding the sanctions imposed on June 4, 2026, by the United States Department of Justice on Mineral La Victoria SA, the 50%-owned joint venture developing the Nueva Sabana and La Demajagua mines in Cuba," the official text states.
The trigger was the decision by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury to add Minera La Victoria S.A. to its list of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons on Thursday, just 15 days after the Cuban regime published in the Official Gazette the concession for the exploitation of gold and copper granted to that company for 20 years.
Minera La Victoria S.A. is a mixed company established in August 2020 between the Cuban state-owned company GeoMinera S.A. and Antilles Gold, each holding a 50% stake.
The regime had granted, through Agreement 9902 of the Council of Ministers signed by Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz, the exclusive right to extract and process gold and copper on 752.20 hectares in the Nueva Sabana area, Baraguá municipality, Ciego de Ávila province.
The construction of the mine began in December 2025 with the Chinese company Xinhai Mining Technology & Equipment as the main contractor, under a contract worth 29.5 million dollars that covered approximately 85% of the outstanding development costs.
The financing was deliberately structured to avoid Western lenders: Xinhai also provided a credit line of 17.1 million dollars, while Antilles Gold contributed a loan of five million dollars to the joint venture.
Antilles Gold estimated that its two Cuban projects — Nueva Sabana and La Demajagua, located on Isla de la Juventud — could generate more than 2.5 billion Australian dollars (about 1.763 billion US dollars) in cash surplus between 2027 and 2037.
The sanction is part of the third wave of measures under the Executive Order 14404 signed by Trump on May 1, 2026, which expanded restrictions on the energy, defense, metals and mining, financial services, and security sectors in Cuba.
In that same round, the Ministry of Revolutionary Armed Forces (MINFAR), the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR), the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP), the agency AMISTUR Cuba SA, President Miguel Díaz-Canel and his wife Lis Cuesta Peraza, stepson Manuel Anido Cuesta, and Alejandro Castro Espín along with his son were blocked.
The OFAC also warned that "the risk of secondary sanctions extends to transactions with any entity in which GAESA, MININT, or MINFAR hold, directly or indirectly, a 50% or greater interest."
The case fits into a broader pattern of foreign investment withdrawal from the Cuban mining sector.
The Canadian company Sherritt International, which has been mining nickel and cobalt in Moa since 1994, suspended its direct involvement in all its joint ventures in Cuba on May 7, after Moa Nickel S.A. was sanctioned on the same day. Cuba has accumulated a debt of 277 million dollars to Sherritt.
The Cuban-American businessman William Pitt Wasmer, heir to a family that owned mines confiscated by the regime after 1959, warned that the crisis cannot be viewed in isolation: "Now, in addition to the issues of nickel and cobalt mining, gold mining is also a concern," he said to 14ymedio, adding that the structural crisis on the island exacerbates the impact: "Cuba's economic situation, with its complete lack of electrical resources and necessary fuels for mining operations," is part of the problem.
“It remains to be seen whether Antilles Gold will take a direction similar to that of Sherritt or if, simply due to not having a significant investment, they will let things run their course without taking further action,” Pitt summarized.
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