Golden Mile Resources Investigation Reveals Quicksilver Cobalt Potential
THE DRILL SERGEANT: Golden Mile Resources (ASX: G88) has been investigating high-grade cobalt results achieved from Stage Three Metallurgical testwork undertaken at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Quicksilver nickel-cobalt deposit near Lake Grace in Western Australia.
Golden Mile Resources has been reassessing its project portfolio, with priority on the Quicksilver Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE).
The company completed a high-level geological review, which included data validation and reinterpretation of the project.
This work is in its advanced stages and results deemed critical by the company in in any advancement to next phases of drilling at Quicksilver.
The geological reinterpretation is providing Golden Mile with insight into the potential controls on both the nickel and cobalt mineralisation.
Efforts thus far have identified a high-grade cobalt domain within the existing cobalt Mineral Resource.
Stage Three metallurgical testwork has demonstrated this high-grade cobalt domain may be amenable to upgrading via wet scrubbing, screening, and gravity separation, with concentrate grades of up to 0.85 per cent cobalt achieved.
“The upgrading of the cobalt has the potential to provide an additional high-grade concentrate to Quicksilver which is separate to the high-grade nickel bearing vermiculite and the magnetite iron concentrates,” Golden Mile Resources managing director Damon Dormer said in the company’s ASX announcement.
“The cobalt domain is extensive and with it positioned on the interface of upper and lower saprolite horizons means it effectively sits at the top of the nickel laden saprolite.
“The ability to domain this zone for the updated Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) will enable the value of this concentrate to be captured in the scoping study.
“The metallurgical testwork is showing that cobalt containing minerals within certain size fractions can be preferentially separated to a gravity concentrate.
“While there is more work to do there is the opportunity that this cobalt rich domain could be mined in conjunction with the nickel laden saprolite with separation into the concentrates occurring in the plant.
“The separation of a high-grade cobalt concentrate should effectively have minimal additional mining cost as the cobalt rich zone is mined on the way to the high-grade nickel zones below.
“Should a simple gravity separation step prove effective the recovery of a high grade cobalt concentrate would be expected to incur only an incremental processing costs.
“The value of additional high-grade concentrates cannot be understated in insulating the project from adverse market conditions and it’s on the back of excellent geological and metallurgical work that has been carried out over the previous 12 months.”
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