Ongoing Metallurgical Test Work At The Goldstorm Deposit
VANCOUVER - Tudor Gold Corp. reported on the ongoing metallurgical testwork on the Goldstorm gold, copper and silver deposit, located on the Treaty Creek Project situated within the Golden Triangle of British Columbia.
Flotation recoveries within the Lower CS-600 sub-domain totaled up to 88.1% copper, 63.8% gold, and 51.3% silver. Flotation testing confirmed that a high-grade copper concentrate with significant quantities of gold can be produced from the Lower CS-600 sub-domain, that exceed 29% copper with significant gold and silver grades of 33 g/t and 96 g/t, respectivel.
The flotation program uses a typical copper flowsheet to produce the saleable copper concentrate mentioned above. Further flotation testwork is ongoing to produce a separate pyrite concentrate containing gold and silver. The positive results from flotation, in conjunction with previous oxidative leaching methods (such as Pressure Oxidation or Albion), continue to support the previously reported gold recoveries of 90% for the Lower CS-600 domain. The testing program was designed and executed with sufficient rigor to support a future Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA).
Ken Konkin, President & CEO, said, "We are very pleased with the results obtained from the locked-cycle flotation tests from this phase of metallurgical testing on material from the lower portion of the CS-600 Domain (CS-600L). We estimate more than 50% of the CS-600 Domain is located within the lower portion (the CS-600L sub-domain). Through a simple rougher-cleaner flotation process we were able to produce an exceptionally clean, high-grade concentrate with excellent metal recoveries, with over 88% for copper and approximately 64% for gold. The CS-600L sub-domain is located in the same area which hosts the newly discovered Supercell-1 (SC-1) high-grade gold complex. Our engineering team has recommended initial metallurgical tests to be conducted on material collected from the SC-1 drill hole intercepts. The SC-1 composite sample will be shipped to SGS Labs for metallurgical tests.
Our concept is to focus on the high-grade SC-1 to study the possibility of extracting as much high-grade gold as possible while potentially building out the infrastructure to access the CS-600L area. The plan is to utilize the same workings from the Supercell complex to access the CS-600 domain. These latest results from the CS-600L Domain significantly de-risk the Goldstorm project with respect to metallurgical characteristics of the copper-gold mineralization and will be utilized in a future Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA).
Additionally, two gold-dominant domains, 300H and DS5, have demonstrated high gold recoveries from previous oxidation/cyanidation tests, with results exceeding 94% gold recovery for the Albion process and in excess of 98% gold recovery for pressure oxidation tests. We were very pleased to observe that no deleterious compounds were formed from any of the types of oxidation-leach tests completed, which will allow our technical team to conduct trade-off studies for recovery vs costs for each process. Given the favorable metallurgical test results obtained from this gravity/flotation system for the CS-600L sub-domain, testing and potentially expanding the SC-1 high-grade gold complex will be our primary focus moving forward. Additional tests are also recommended to examine the northernmost part of CS-600 (CS-600N) which has never been tested previously and continued tests on the upper CS-600 (CS-600U). However, the lower portion of CS-600 has enough volume to mine and process 40,000 tonnes per day (tpd) over 17 years producing a highly desirable copper concentrate with good gold and silver credits. The goal for the Treaty Creek Deposit is to be able to produce at least 500,000 AuEQ ounces per year. Our mineral process engineers can determine the optimal size and type of mineral processing to be considered for advancing the project that will part of the PEA with a series of trade-off studies examining the most economical path forward for the Treaty Creek Project."