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- Challenger Exploration (CEL) has reported high grade gold recoveries from phase one metallurgical testing at the Hualilan Gold Project in Argentina
- Initial testing of the skarn mineralisation has shown gold recoveries of 91 to 94 per cent and silver recoveries of 84 to 86 per cent
- Phase one testing is now complete, with the company preparing to move forward to phase two, which will involve comminution and cleaner flotation testing
- Challenger says additional processes like pressure and biological oxidation or atmospheric leaching could potentially produce gold on site.
- The company is in the grey, last trading at 34 cents each
Challenger Exploration (CEL) has reported high grade gold recoveries from phase one metallurgical testing at the Hualilan Gold Project.
The Hualilan Gold Project is located in San Juan Province, Argentina, with extensive historical drilling, including over 150 drill-holes and a non-JORC historical resource of 627,000 ounces at 13.7g/t gold, which remains open in most directions.
Initial testing of the skarn mineralisation has shown gold recoveries of 91 to 94 per cent, and silver recoveries of 84 to 86 per cent. These results represent a significant increase in the combined gravity and floatation recoveries compare to the historical testing, which indicated recoveries of 80 per cent for gold and silver.
Phase one looked into the production of a bulk gold/silver concentrate and the production of rougher copper, lead and zinc concentrate streams.
The company found high gravity gold recoveries in all tests with gravity recovery, averaging 42.4 per cent. Challenger also determined that fine grinding will not be required after best recoveries achieved grind sizes of 86 to 106 microns.
“The initial results from phase one metallurgical are a significant uplift on what was achieved historically, and I am delighted with gold recoveries of over 91 per cent from a process consisting of gravity recovery followed by a single sulphide float,” said CEL Managing Director Kris Knauer.
“This is about as simple as metallurgy gets providing us with the ability to evaluate commercialisation via an option which traditionally requires far less capital expenditure than the alternatives.”
Challenger says this initial round of metallurgical testing has confirmed that gravity and flotation recovery of gold and base metal concentrates, a low risk and industry-standard process, provides a clear path to evaluate commercialisation with excellent recoveries plus base metal credits.
Phase one testing is now complete, with the company preparing to move forward to phase two, which will involve comminution and cleaner flotation testing.
Challenger says additional processes, like pressure and biological oxidation or atmospheric leaching, could potentially produce gold on site.
The company is in the grey, last trading at 34 cents each at 10:26 am AEDT.
