- 01Iltani sorted 5t of Orient ore: 22% product, 56% waste.
- 02Assays and flotation tests will assess metal grades and recoveries.
- 03Orient hosts 62.5Mt at 81.5g/t AgEq.
Iltani Resources (ASX: ILT) has completed initial ore-sorting trials on a bulk sample from its Orient silver-indium project in northern Queensland, separating 22% of the material into a product stream for further metallurgical assessment.
The test involved approximately five tonnes of diamond drill core processed by sorting technology provider TOMRA, with 56% of the feed directed to waste and the remaining 22% left unsorted.
The separated fractions are being transferred to Core Metallurgy in Brisbane for sampling, assays and flotation test work aimed at determining concentrate grades and metal recoveries.
The sorting results establish the physical split achieved in the trial, although assay results are still required to determine how much silver, indium, lead and zinc each fraction contains.
Sorting Across Grades
Iltani assembled a 5,084-kilogram sample comprising 561kg of high-grade material, 1,448kg of medium-grade material, and 3,075kg of low grade material selected to represent the Orient mineralisation.
Before processing, the drill core was crushed to pass 37.5 millimetres, then screened through TOMRA’s dual-energy X-ray transmission system using its contAIn sorting algorithm.
The first sorting pass treated material measuring 10mm to 37.5mm, followed by a second pass targeting the 6.3mm to 10mm fraction to increase the product recovered from the feed.
Of the total sample, 1,108kg was assigned to product, 2,843kg to waste and 1,133kg to unsorted material, predominantly particles smaller than 6.3mm.
The proportion reporting to product was 34% for high-grade feed, 22% for medium-grade feed and 19% for low grade feed, showing how the mass split varied between the three domains.
Metal Recovery Assays
Visual separation and mass rejection do not yet establish the grade uplift or the proportion of payable metals retained in the sorted product, making the forthcoming assays an important test of the process.
Core Metallurgy will prepare representative samples of the product, waste, and unsorted streams before analysing their metal content and commencing flotation trials.
The initial flotation stage will treat sorted products and fines from each of the three grade domains separately to assess concentrate quality and recoveries.
Tests will then recombine products and fines in expected proportions for each domain, followed by a composite reflecting anticipated plant feed proportions once suitable flotation conditions have been identified.
Orient Project Context
Orient forms part of Iltani’s larger Herberton project and hosts an existing mineral resource estimate of 62.5 million tonnes grading 81.5 grams per tonne silver equivalent.
The MRE includes 38.8Mt in the Indicated category and 23.7Mt in the Inferred category, with silver, indium, lead, and zinc contributing to the silver-equivalent grade.
The principal economic minerals are silver-bearing galena and indium-bearing sphalerite, which historical test work indicates could produce separate lead-silver and zinc-indium concentrates.
The current metallurgical program is intended to test the performance of sorted and unsorted Orient material through flotation, rather than establish commercial recoveries from the sorting results alone.
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