Cabral Gold Defies Gold's Pullback as Cuiú Cuiú Targets First Gold 6 Weeks Early

• Cabral Gold Inc. has received its Operating License from Pará state authority SEMAS/PA, clearing the final regulatory step for cyanide use at its Cuiú Cuiú Phase 1 heap leach project in Brazil.
• First gold production is now targeted for September 2026, approximately 6 weeks ahead of schedule, with commercial production ramping up during the fourth quarter of 2026.
• Construction of the wet processing circuit is more than 90% complete, and mechanical assembly of the adsorption, desorption and recovery (ADR) plant is finished.
• President and Chief Executive Officer Alan Carter says Cabral's share price has held up while peer junior gold equities pulled back on weaker gold prices and Middle East tensions.
• The project remains on budget against its July 2025 Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS), which modeled an after-tax internal rate of return (IRR) of 78% and all-in sustaining costs (AISC) of US$1,210 per ounce at a US$2,500 per ounce gold price.

Cabral Gold Inc. (TSXV: CBR | OTCQX: CBGZF) now expects first gold in September 2026, 6 weeks ahead of schedule, after receiving the Operating License from the Pará state environmental authority, SEMAS/PA, for its Phase 1 gold-in-oxide heap leach project at the Cuiú Cuiú Gold District in northern Brazil. The license, together with final regulatory approval from Brazilian military authorities for the purchase and transport of cyanide, provides the regulatory consent required for cyanide use in the leaching process and lays the foundation for a future Full Mining License. It lands as President and Chief Executive Officer Alan Carter says Cabral's share price has held firm while peer junior gold equities retreated on weaker gold prices and Middle East tensions.

Regulatory Approval Clears the Way for the Wet Circuit

The Operating License grants regulatory consent to use cyanide for leaching and builds on the Preliminary License granted earlier in 2026, which Cabral calls the foundation for a future Full Mining License. Construction of the wet circuit, the second of two commissioning phases following completion of the dry circuit, is now more than 90% complete. The adsorption, desorption and recovery (ADR) plant, assembled and commissioned in Perth, Western Australia before shipping to Brazil, has arrived on site, with mechanical assembly finished and electrical installation more than 90% complete. Commissioning now moves to the carbon adsorption columns, desorption, and gold dore production, the last steps before first gold.

Carter tied the license approval directly to weeks of construction progress: 

"We have continued to make excellent progress on the construction of our Phase 1 gold-in-oxide heap leach project at Cuiú Cuiú during the last few weeks. I am particularly pleased that we have received our Operating License together with the cyanide permit."

A District Built on a Historic Placer Camp

Cuiú Cuiú sits in the Tapajós Gold Province of Pará state, site of what Brazil's National Mining Agency calls the country's largest gold rush, an estimated 30 million to 50 million ounces of placer gold recovered between 1978 and 1995. Cuiú Cuiú produced an estimated 2 million ounces of that historical output, roughly 10 times the placer volume later recorded at GMining Ventures' neighboring Tocantinzinho mine, Brazil's third-largest open-pit gold operation. Cabral holds a 100% interest in the district, mining near-surface gold-in-oxide material this year while 6 drill rigs continue testing the wider land package.

Execution, Not Just Grade, Is Shaping the Investment Case

This update carries more weight than a routine construction milestone. Cabral has built through the middle of Brazil's rainy season, when the site sees rain most days, and still moved its first gold date forward by 6 weeks rather than back. 

Carter, addressing the broader junior gold sector, described a divergence between Cabral's stock and its peers amid sector-wide weakness: 

"I hope that once we achieve commercial gold production, the company will get a re-rate. The share price has done quite well even with this recent pullback in gold. Most of my portfolio consists of junior gold explorers and producers, and most of those companies have pulled back in their share prices because of the pullback in gold prices and the war in the Middle East. We have actually held up very, very well."

That execution record, not the license alone, is doing the heavier lifting for the investment case. The license removes one of the last binary regulatory risks standing between the project and cash flow. For investors, the real signal is whether the market is already differentiating Cabral from peers still working through construction or financing overhangs, ahead of the re-rating catalyst that typically accompanies first production.

Economics Behind the Near-Term Catalyst

The July 2025 Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS), led by Ausenco Brazil, underpins the build: an after-tax internal rate of return (IRR) of 78% and after-tax net present value at a 5% discount rate (NPV5%) of US$73.9 million at a base-case gold price of US$2,500 per ounce, against initial capital expenditure of US$37.7 million. Life-of-mine all-in sustaining costs (AISC) are estimated at US$1,210 per ounce across a 6.2-year mine life producing 113,155 ounces, with average annual production of approximately 25,000 ounces during the first 2 years. The US$45 million gold loan that funded construction closed in November 2025 and remains the company's primary source of capital, with Cabral directing Phase 1 cash flow toward further district exploration rather than dilutive equity financing. At a US$3,500-per-ounce gold price, the after-tax IRR rises to 151%.

With construction largely complete, the license secured, and first gold now 6 weeks ahead of plan, Cuiú Cuiú's remaining risk narrows to commissioning execution on the wet circuit, not permitting or financing. That narrowing risk profile, set against a junior gold sector still working through a price pullback, is the lens through which the market will read Cabral's next update: first gold, expected in September 2026.

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