- Ardea Resources (ARL) has reported 95.1 per cent overall average gold extractions from metallurgical test work
- The test work was completed on four samples from Ardea’s recent Lily Albany gold discovery, which lies within the WA-based Goongarrie Nickel Cobalt Project
- The gold recoveries didn’t show any refractory issues or harmful contaminants and aligns with a free-milling gold deposit
- Ardea plans to conduct further drilling as well as metallurgical test work within the project
- Company shares are up 2.27 per cent and trading at 45 cents at market close
Ardea Resources (ARL) has received positive results from initial metallurgical test work completed on four samples from its Lily Albany gold discovery.
Lily Albany is located within the Goongarrie Nickel Cobalt Project (GNCP) which lies 70 kilometres northwest of Kalgoorlie, Western Australia.
In August, Ardea announced intercepting significant gold mineralisation from the first reverse circulation (RC) drilling program at the Aphrodite North target area at the GNCP.
Follow-up drilling confirmed a new gold discovery within the target which has been dubbed ‘Lily Albany’.
Previous results from Lily Albany include six metres at 3.6g/t gold from 44 metres, including two metres at 4.94g/t gold from 172 metres to 180 metres, and 10 metres at 3.55g/t gold from 40 metres including two metres at 15.5g/t gold from 44 metres.
It was after this that Ardea thought metallurgical test work was warranted to determine the routes for gold discovery and that the deposit has reasonable prospects of eventual economic extraction (RPEEE).
Pleasingly, the four samples returned average gold recoveries of more than 95 per cent which aligns with a free-milling gold deposit.
“The results indicate that conventional gravity and leach gold recoveries of greater than 95 per cent can be achieved, with no refractory issues or deleterious contaminants,” Managing Director Andrew Penkethman said.
“Given the strong zones of gold mineralisation intersected thus far from exploration drilling, combined with the high gold extractions from metallurgical testwork, Lily Albany remains a priority project,” he added.
The company will conduct additional work including resource definition drilling and resource estimation at the Lily Albany and Zeus discoveries.
Ardea will also conduct mining studies and further metallurgical test work to confirm the deposit’s RPEEE status and optimise the metallurgical parameters.
Company shares are up 2.27 per cent and trading at 45 cents at market close.