Maximus Resources Ltd (ASX:MXR) has welcomed strong metallurgical results in preliminary test-work on Redback and Wattle Dam gold mineralisation, achieving recoveries ranging from 91.5% to 97.3%.
The company’s test-work achieved recoverable gold of up to 71.2% from gravity separation before cyanide leaching, which was achieved rapidly from a coarse grind with low reagent consumption.
Representative samples were taken from open-pit resource areas at the Wattle Dam Project’s Stockwork and Redback prospects, which hold mineral resource estimates of 23,800 ounces at 1.2 g/t gold and 76,500 ounces at 1.9 g/t, respectively.
Bottle roll technique
After the gravity separation, the gravity amalgamation residue was re-combined with the Knelson gravity tail for the downstream cyanide leach test-work using a bottle roll technique via standard Western Australian Goldfields leach conditions.
The test was conducted over a 48-hour period, during which all intermediate and final leach products were analysed at specified intervals.
These tests provide valuable insights into the gravity gold content, the cyanidable gold content, the total gold recovery, gold leach kinetics, lime and sodium cyanide reagent consumptions and a calculated gold grade that can be compared directly with the head assay gold grade as a final check.
Gold leach kinetics were rapid with most of the gold leaching in the first 2-4 hours. After a 48-hour test period, the total extractable gold ranged from 93.14% to 97.51%.
Near-term production potential
“Redback and Wattle Dam stockwork gold deposits represent a potential near-term gold production opportunity for Maximus, both located on granted mining licences and strategically located within short trucking distance to several regional gold processing plants,” Maximus Resources managing director Tim Wither said.
“This is the first metallurgical test-work completed by Maximus at Redback and the Wattle Dam stockwork, with encouraging results confirming that both deposits have a high component of gravity recoverable gold, are free milling and amenable to conventional carbon in leach (CIL) gold processing.
“The excellent test-work results demonstrate fast downstream leach kinetics from a coarse grind size, with the majority of the gold leaching in the first 2-4 hours.”
Maximus says it is well funded with $5.1 million in the bank as of December last year, which it will use to evaluate several near-term gold development opportunities, in parallel with ongoing nickel exploration.
Read: Maximus Resources starts aircore drilling at Jilbadji nickel-copper-cobalt prospect after encouraging gold and nickel sampling
Wattle Dam and Redback gold deposits with a combined resource of about 100,300 ounces are strategically located within short trucking distance to several regional gold processing plants.
Gold mineralisation at Wattle Dam including the Redback deposit, Golden Orb and S5 are all considered to be part of a much larger interconnecting mineralised system, with opportunity for further resource growth.