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Pioneer Minerals (ASX:PMM) has identified the potential to significantly improve tungsten grades at the Springfield mine in Idaho, USA, following successful test work undertaken on material collected from historic tailings.
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The metallurgical beneficiation test work was undertaken on composite material collected from the Springfield tungsten mine. Pioneer today said the results demonstrated the ability to materially upgrade tungsten grades by a factor of up to 17.6 times, relative to the composite head grade.
Springfield, part of the company’s North Pine project, had originally operated during the 1950s when tungsten was mined and processed using gravity concentration methods designed to recover coarse tungsten minerals. Material processed through the mill was crushed and separated to produce a saleable tungsten concentrate, with the remaining material discharged as tailings.
These are composed predominantly of finer particles, which were not recovered by earlier gravity circuits; typically operated at relatively coarse crush sizes.
CEO, Michael Beven, said testing this material has provided an opportunity to evaluate potential value remaining within the historic tailings while also providing important insight into how fine-grained tungsten mineralisation from the Springfield system may behave during modern mineral processing.
He noted that size-by-assay results show that tungsten becomes progressively enriched within the finer particle size fractions, which is consistent with the behaviour expected from fine-grained tungsten mineralisation.
‘Heavy liquid separation testing demonstrates a strong upgrade into the dense mineral fraction, confirming that tungsten minerals within the material exhibit a significant density contrast relative to the surrounding gangue minerals,” the Pioneer chief explained when speaking to shareholders today.
Gravity table testing further demonstrated that tungsten can be concentrated through conventional gravity separation techniques.
The next phase of the metallurgical test work program will focus on detailed mineralogical characterisation and particle size analysis to better understand the mineral associations and liberation characteristics of tungsten minerals within the sample.
These Pioneer studies will be designed to further understand all the mineral associations and liberation characteristics of tungsten minerals and to assist in identifying optimal processing strategies.
PMM will open at 18c today.
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