People need to speak sense... Metallurgical Studies Update
Blue Coast Research Ltd. (BCR), under the supervision of Tad Crowie, P. Eng of JDS Energy & Mining Inc., has been conducting a metallurgical test work program on samples from the Company’s Goldstorm Deposit from the Treaty Creek Property. The program includes flotation and whole ore cyanide leach to build on previous work conducted at SGS and Bureau Veritas (BV). The flotation tests demonstrate that the CS-600 domain can produce a quality copper concentrate with significant quantities of gold. Also, CS-600 cyanidation results demonstrated improved gold recoveries over previous test work. The positive flotation and leaching tests, along with previously conducted oxidative stage (POX, Albion, or bioleach) and leaching will continue to allow for previously reported gold recoveries of 90% and copper recoveries of 80% for the CS-600 domain. The testwork completed to date has indicated that there are no deleterious elements of concern in processing the Treaty Creek material or selling concentrates.
In the flotation tests, emphasis was placed on the CS-600 domain to produce a copper concentrate and a pyrite/gold concentrate as the CS-600 area had previously only received preliminary test work. Metallurgical results from the CS-600 domain include:
- Flotation testing of the CS-600 produced a concentrate of approximately 20% copper and 25 g/t gold;
- Flotation recoveries for the CS-600 domain achieved 79.5% and 65.3% for copper and gold respectively;
- Flotation recoveries of the 300H, and DS5 domains demonstrate that gold can be concentrated prior to oxidation and cyanide leaching to improve the economics of recovery; and
- Whole ore leach recoveries of 81.1% gold on the CS-600 sample.
The next phase of metallurgical test work will build upon the results that have already been achieved with a program that will provide information to be used in a Preliminary Economic Assessment. The test work will include comminution, follow up flotation tests, alternate forms of oxidation, and leaching tests to recover copper and gold. The flotation tests will target reducing the amount of non-sulphide gangue that is entrained in the flotation concentrates to improve the concentrate grades achieved thus far.