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Testwork confirms East Sampson Dam gold ore is highly treatable
Mining
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Special report: Initial metallurgical test results confirm that the gold ore from Moho’s (ASX:MOH) East Sampson Dam prospect can be processed through third party mills in the Kalgoorlie region.
In early February, Moho caught a +200 per cent rocket after the WA explorer was able to extend known high-grade gold mineralisation at the East Sampson Dam prospect.
Results from the explorer’s second drilling program at the prospect included 2m at 24.61 grams per tonne (g/t) gold inside a larger 5m intersection grading 10.36g/t gold, 54m from surface.
Moho has now commenced mining studies towards a potential gold production scenario.
This includes metallurgical programs, which are critical for aspiring mine developers like Moho.
They determine how the ore will react to commonly accepted recovery processes (like gravity, flotation, leaching, and concentration), and estimate how much metal can be recovered.
Higher gold recoveries = bigger profits.
Moho has now successfully tested ‘composite’ samples — selected to best represent the grade and nature of gold mineralisation at the East Sampson Dam prospect — as part of a scoping study assessing the potential viability of a mining operation.
The test work conditions were designed to replicate the toll milling facilities in the surrounding Kalgoorlie region.
Toll treating – or processing ore at another company’s mill for a fee – is perfect for gold deposits too small to justify their own large-scale plant development.
Conventional cyanide leaching yielded 95.6 per cent and 95.9 per cent overall gold recovery, replicating standard Kalgoorlie toll treatment processing.
Moho also recorded reasonably high gold recoveries of 41.8 per cent to 52.9 per cent from conventional gravity tests.
These high recovery and rapid leach kinetics (reaction rates) indicate that a coarser grind size could be used during processing.
Further metallurgical test work is proposed on a single ‘master composite’ in Q4 to represent potential mill feed grade to replicate potential toll mill treatment conditions.
Ultimately, this will provide mills — which Moho may approach to secure a Toll Milling Agreement — with confidence that the ore can be treated successfully through their mill at their operating conditions.
“Moho is very encouraged by the positive metallurgical results on the East Sampson Dam samples, particularly as they represent >99 per cent of mineralisation within preliminary pit shell design and the high overall gold recoveries have been achieved using conventional cyanide leaching similar to standard Kalgoorlie toll treatment plants,” Moho managing director Shane Sadleir says.
