Aeris Resources Ltd (ASX:AIS, OTC:ARSRF) is making strong and encouraging progress with a definitive feasibility study on its 100%-owned Stockman Project in Victoria, Australia, with consideration to the recently upgraded Currawong mineral resource estimate (MRE) and the addition of Albion Process technology to the processing flowsheet.
Welcoming the DFS progress, the company's executive chairman Andre Labuschagne said “We are very excited with the potential of the Stockman Project. Since acquiring Stockman as part of the Round Oak acquisition in July 2022, our technical teams have materially advanced the project.”
Currawong upgrade simplifies mine plan
The upgrade to the Currawong MRE, announced last week, has enabled Aeris to revise and simplify the mine plan and reduce up-front capital requirements.
The plan now is to mine Currawong only for the first 12 years of operations, at a rate of up to 850,000 tonnes per annum of ore. Previously, Aeris expected to mine Currawong and Wilga deposits concurrently.
The feasibility study is also looking at the potential to extend mine life from the Wilga, Eureka and Bigfoot deposits.
Aeris has all primary mining and onsite processing approvals in place and has strong community support, while functional-level designs for site and camp infrastructure have been completed.
Flowsheet to include Albion Process
Labuschagne said a key factor why Stockman hadn’t yet been developed is that "the complex metallurgy of the Stockman deposits impacts on metal recoveries and processing plant capital and operating costs.”
Integrating the Albion Process — which utilises proven oxidative leaching technology, with a number of plants globally producing copper, zinc and gold products — has been identified as a potential solution. The well-established, oxidative leaching technology is proven to treat a wide range of concentrates with high metal recoveries.
Having challenged his team to develop a processing flowsheet to address these issues and after exploring multiple configurations, Labuschagne said he was confident that a way forward had been identified that involved integrating the Albion Process.
The company’s new processing strategy will involve two stages:
Labuschagne explained, “The mine site processing plant will have a simplified flowsheet producing a high-grade copper concentrate and a bulk concentrate containing copper, zinc, gold and silver. The copper concentrate will be transported to market whilst the bulk concentrate will be trucked to a regional offsite processing facility.
“The offsite processing facility will utilise ultrafine grinding and the Albion Process to produce separate copper, zinc and precious metals saleable products. The addition of the Albion Process has the potential to provide a step-change in metal recoveries and materially improve project economics.
“An initial desktop study has been completed with the technology vendor, utilising the recent feasibility study and metallurgical test work results. A number of potential locations for the offsite processing facility have already been identified.”
Feasibility study due later this year
The company says metallurgical test work and engineering design for Albion Process is to commence, while opportunities to further improve other aspects of the operations, its ESG footprint and project economics have also been identified, and are being progressed.
The feasibility study — now focused on verification of the metallurgical, flowsheet and economic assumptions associated with incorporating the Albion Process — is targeted for completion in the second half of 2024.