Odyssey Gold’s fresh rock recoveries support Tuckanarra development potential

• Odyssey Gold metallurgical testing achieves 95-97% gold recoveries from fresh rock
• Preliminary finding expands development options for Tuckanarra project
• Exploration and infill drilling along with technical studies continuing

Special Report: Odyssey Gold’s metallurgical testwork has hinted at the development potential of fresh rock at its Tuckanarra gold project in the Meekatharra-Cue belt in WA.

Tuckanarra – part of the prolific Murchison Goldfields region – had previously produced 101,000oz of gold from five shallow oxide pits in the 1990s at an average grade of 3.9g/t gold and another ~40,000oz at 7.2g/t from the only modern underground mine.

While this previous work had focused on the laterite and weathered oxide, Odyssey Gold (ASX:ODY) recognised the potential for both strike and down plunge extensions to the mineralisation and has carried out exploration to define deeper targets.

Diamond drilling beneath the historical Bollard open pit has extended the emerging high-grade shoot there while an airborne electromagnetic survey to define deeper gold targets has identified multiple priority targets.

Preliminary metallurgical testwork that was expanded to improve understanding of primary fresh rock ore – particularly sulphide associated mineralisation – has provided further support for the company’s push.

Metallurgical testing

Previous testwork had focused mainly on oxide and transitional mineralisation sourced from the Cable, Bollard, Laterite, Maybelle and Lucknow deposits, achieving gold recoveries of between 94.7% and 99.3%.

The current sighter program conducted on 37 composite samples – 31 fresh rock and six oxide – from the Highway, Cable, Bollard and Bottle Dump deposits achieved recoveries of 95-97% across both oxide and fresh rock samples.

High recoveries and low tail grades are encouraging and indicate that Tuckanarra mineralisation will respond well during cyanide hydrometallurgical processing even for very high sulphide samples.

“While the mining history and previous testwork gave us high confidence about gold recoveries from weathered ores at Tuckanarra, it is pleasing that initial sighter testwork on the fresh ores also points at very good recoveries,” executive director Matt Syme said.

“This augurs well for future exploration and potential exploitation of deeper ore sources.”

Listen: Mountains of upside in the Murchison goldfields

Tuckanarra project

Tuckanarra has a resource of 5.14Mt grading 2.5g/t, or 407,000oz of contained gold, most of which are contained in previously mined resources.

With 311,000oz sitting within granted mining leases, approvals for mining are expected to be fast thanks to existing environmental baseline studies and an absence of significant native title or known heritage issues.

ODY recently entered into a technical study to assess options for mining the existing high-grade, open pit resources at the project for potential processing at the nearby Burnakura plant operated by Monument Murchison, which holds a 20% stake in Tuckanarra.

The company already has an MoU with Monument Murchison to collaborate on studying options to process ore at the 260,000tpa plant, which is currently on care and maintenance.

Monument is considering restarting the mill with options to upgrade the plant up to 750,000tpa capacity to allow processing of third-party’s ore in the area, including from Tuckanarra.

ODY is continuing exploration and infill reverse circulation drilling at the project.

It will also carry out further metallurgical and comminution testwork work including SMC, bond abrasion Index determination, grind optimisation, gravity separation, and magnetic separation along with direct cyanidation with oxygenation.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.