- MetalsTech (MTC) has received results from metallurgical testing at Nagrom Laboratories in Perth of ore from its fully-owned Sturec Gold Mine in Slovakia
- The testwork assessed bulk ore gold and silver recovery techniques with and without the use of cyanide which is not permitted in Slovakia
- The results suggest that Sturec is suited to gravity and flotation processing of ore into a concentrate which can then be sold or transported to a neighbouring country for further processing using cyanide leaching
- Additional testing will be carried out on core from the current diamond drilling program at Sturec
- Shares have been trading 4.8 per cent higher at 22 cents
MetalsTech (MTC) has received results from metallurgical testing of ore from its fully-owned Sturec Gold Mine in Slovakia.
Samples of both transitional and sulphide ore were taken from Andrej Adit at Sturec in May and sent to Nagrom Laboratories in Perth for bulk ore gold and silver recovery tests.
The aim of the testing was to determine whether a suitable concentration of gold and silver could be produced without using cyanide in processing, as this is not permitted in Slovakia.
MetalsTech said the results suggest that Sturec is suited to gravity and flotation processing of ore into a concentrate which can then be sold or transported to a neighbouring country for further processing using cyanide leaching.
Chairman Russel Moran said results from these initial tests indicate the opportunity for low capital expenditure processing at the project.
“The sulfide ore at Sturec is the primary target ore type and it has demonstrated excellent gold recoveries from simple gravity separation and flotation. This opens up a wide range of simple and low capital expenditure processing opportunities for Sturec, if this good recovery profile continues,” Russel commented.
“We look forward to complementing this bulk ore metallurgical testwork with further testing and gold and silver assays from the current diamond core drilling program to follow,” he added.
Gravity separation of the transitional ore recovered a total of 74.06 per cent gold and 19.12 per cent silver.
When tailings were further processed by conventional sulphide flotation, 88 per cent overall gold was recovered and 34.25 per cent overall silver.
However, combined gravity and flotation processing recovered a higher overall concentration of silver from the sulphide, or fresh, ore sample at 48.7 per cent.
When flotation tailings were also leached in cyanide, the total gold recovery was lifted as high as 97.9 per cent from the transitional ore, and silver recovery increased to 64.95 per cent in the sulphide ore sample.
Shares are trading 4.8 per cent higher at 22 cents at 1 pm AEST.