Aurum Resources delivers gold recoveries of up to 99% from Boundiali test work

Aurum Resources (ASX: AUE) has confirmed gold recoveries of up to 99% from initial metallurgical test work at the BD Target 1 prospect within its Boundiali gold project in Côte d’Ivoire.

Bottle roll cyanide leach tests were conducted on 50 coarse reject ore samples from various depths, lithologies and oxidation states across a range of gold grades likely to be encountered in an open pit.

The samples were taken from diamond core holes drilled at the prospect earlier this year and over a volume bounded by 300 metres (east to west) and 550m (south to north) and to depths of 328m below the surface with an average depth of 106m.

Free-milling samples

The results showed the gold mineralisation to be free-milling, with cyanide leach recoveries after 24 hours exceeding 93% for samples grading 0.25 grams per tonne of gold or higher.

Oxide samples are believed to have exhibited “exceptional” gold recoveries averaging 97.5% and reaching a maximum of 99%.

Fresh samples of all lithologies reported an average gold recovery of 90.3%.

A positive correlation was observed between gold recovery and gold head grade, with samples above 0.25g/t reporting an average recovery of 93%.

This indicates that higher-grade samples generally yield higher recoveries and is consistent with observations in similar gold deposits.

Standard leaching

Aurum said the results align with typical free-milling ores found in similar deposits and confirm the use of standard cyanide leaching.

“Preliminary metallurgical results are highly encouraging and suggest that Boundiali ore is amenable to conventional processing methods,” the company said.

“The high gold recoveries observed in most samples, particularly those with gold grades above 0.25g/t, support the potential for a successful gold mining operation.”

Aurum is planning an additional metallurgical program that will utilise gravity, leach/adsorption, variability test work and comminution testing to further characterise the ore and develop and optimise processing flow sheets.

Accelerated drilling

Aurum is accelerating exploration drilling at Boundiali, with six wholly-owned diamond drill rigs expected to be in operation by the end of August.

This will enable the company to drill more than 4.5km as it works towards defining an initial mineral resource estimate before year-end.

Aurum will use proceeds of a recent $17 million two-tranche capital raising to fund the work.