RE:Rougher Grind Size Will Be The Key To RecoveryI forgot to mention that there is another factor working in our favour; that is: associations between magnetite and awaruite.
It was made quite clear in the RNC Dumont metallurgy writeup that they were able to get away with a larger rougher grind size than they initially thought, because the desireable ore components, in the Dumont case also including pentlandite and heazlewoodite, occurred in association with each other.
Even though pentlandite and heazlewoodite cannot individually be beneficiated by magnetics, Dumont included a sulfide scavenger float on the magnetic fraction. This was only possible because some pentlandite and heazlewoodite were pulled out because they were bound to magnetite and/or awaruite.
Baptiste should enjoy the same advantage.
AlternativeView wrote: The attached spreadheet plots the theoretical smallest awaruite grain recoverable for various grind sizes. It is based on a simple formula for the volume of spheres and on a LIMS recovery threshold of 5% by volume of magnetic material in a given particle. This 5% number was provided in the preamble to the 2013 PEA.
https://ufile.io/y6pxp Looks like 150 micron primary grind is about as big as we can go. 75 micron is likely preferable, but obviously more expensive.