ESGold Corp says high gold and silver recoveries from testing of a non-cyanide tailings processing technology could see it add the environment-friendly method into its project study flowsheet.
The Canadian microcap said metallurgical testwork done in collaboration with Dundee Sustainable Technologies (DST) under their Gold-Silver Green Processing Initiative assessed the effectiveness of DST’s CLEVR Process on legacy tailings material from ESGold’s Montauban project in southern Quebec. The process uses hypochlorite-based chemistry in a closed-loop system. A test sample was taken from onsite tailings said to have average grades of 1.21 grams per tonne gold and 137gpt silver.
“The metallurgical results indicate high gold recovery potential using the CLEVR Process, with gold recovery over 90.9%, following an oxidation pre-treatment process,” ESGold said, adding, “further studies are required to confirm economic feasibility”.
“The tested sample returned silver assay values of 760gpt silver, indicating strong silver recovery potential.
“The initial assayed gold grade of the tested sample was 3.69gpt gold and improved to 6.01gpt gold post-oxidation. This significant increase in grade resulted from mass-loss associated with sulphide removal which improved gold recovery.”
ESGold said oxidative thermal pre-treatment reduced sulphide content of the sample from 29% to 0.48%, significantly improving processing conditions.
It said gold leaching with the CLEVR Process was completed in one hour. It wants to get the reaction time to 30 minutes. Future work would explore increasing solids concentration, reducing reaction time and enhancing silver recovery to further enhance economic efficiencies.
“This successful test confirms that the CLEVR Process is an effective, environmentally sustainable alternative for processing Montauban’s gold-bearing material,” ESGold president Brad Kitchen said.
“These results align with our strategy to develop a clean, efficient processing operation while maximising resource recovery.”
