Aston Minerals reports 78.1% gold recovery from testing of Edleston Main drill core
Test work aimed to confirm the amenability of Edleston gold ore to a combination of gravity and cyanide leach processes.
Perth-based Aston Minerals (ASX: ASO) has reported gold recoveries of up to 78.1% from gravity-only beneficiation of drill core from the Edleston Main prospect in Canada.
The company contracted SGS Lakefield laboratories to conduct heavy liquid separation and superpanning on two samples to determine the potential gravity recovery of gold mineralisation.
Analysis showed 78.1% recoveries from a composite sample grading 0.94 grams per tonne gold, resulting in an 11.38g/t gold gravity concentrate.
Up to 64.1% of gold was also recovered from a composite sample grading 0.66g/t gold, resulting in a 4.28g/t gold concentrate.
Testing aims to confirm the amenability of mineralisation from the Edleston Main and Sirola zones to a combination of gravity and cyanide leach processes.
It will help determine the potential overall metallurgical recovery of gold.
Encouraging results
Managing director Dale Ginn said the results were encouraging.
“To achieve such a high gravity-only recovery of gold mineralisation — which is relatively similar to that of the head grade of the Edleston Main — is very encouraging explains why there are so many visible grains of gold within the mineralisation,” he said.
“We look forward to conducting further metallurgical testing to determine the overall recovery possible through a combination of gravity and cyanide leaching.”
Project location
The Edleston project is located approximately 60 kilometres by road to the south of Timmins in Ontario, which hosts significant former and current gold producers and has the required services and skilled labour available to support Aston’s exploration and development efforts.
The project is located within the Abitibi Greenstone Belt of Archean metavolcanic and medisedimentary units which have been steeply folded with axes trending in a general east-west orientation.
Last week, Aston kicked off a drilling program to target the along-strike potential of a 1.5 million ounce maiden gold resource at Edleston Main and Sirola.
A total of 14 diamond drill holes for 4,800m have been planned to determine the mineralised potential of induced polarisation (IP) chargeability anomalies under shallow transported cover.