Altamira reports 92% recovery at Brazil gold target
Altamira Gold Corp. [ALTA-TSXV, EQTRF-OTC Pink, T6UP-FSE] said Wednesday it achieved 92% gold recovery from metallurgical testing on drill samples from the Maria Bonita target, which forms part of the Cajueiro project in Para state, Brazil.
The company said it used the alternative clean mining thiosulphate leach technique on the drill samples. “This test complements those test results released on March 1, 2023, using the conventional cyanide leach technology,’’ the company said in a press release.
It said the current test was conducted at SGS Australia and CSIRO Laboratories in Western Australia using a proprietary thiosulphate leach technique developed by Clean Mining, a subsidiary of Clean Earth Technologies [CET], based in Singapore.
CET is commercialising a non-cyanide approach to leaching of gold ores that was originally developed in Australia by CSIRO. Cyanide leaching is the traditional method to extract low grade gold. Thiosulphate leaching offers a more environmentally benign route to gold extraction.
“This initial test creates a strong option to now evaluate the application of both the Clean Mining and conventional leach technologies to a start-up heap leach project,’’ said Altamira CEO Mike Bennett.
The Cajueiro project is located approximately 75 kilometres northwest of the town of Alta Foresta in the state of Mato Grosso in central western Brazil and is easily accessible by road and grid power. Cajueiro is one of three key projects that Altamira controls in the region, the other two being Apiacas and Santa Helena.
Previous drilling at Maria Bonita suggest that the company has made a significant new gold discovery at our Cajueiro project, Bennett has said.
“The intense quartz stockwork veining observed in the first two holes is unlike any other style of mineralization thus far encountered in the Cajueiro area,’’ he said. “This style of gold mineralization, together with the size of the gold-in-soil anomaly (800 x 800 metres), suggest that Maria Bonita may have significant bulk-tonnage potential.’’
The Alta Floresta Gold Belt has produced an estimated 7.0-10 million ounces from placer mining operations during the gold rush of the 1980s when gold was washed from streams in a number of areas.
The Cajueiro project hosts an indicated resource of 5.7 million tonnes of grade 1.02 g/t gold (185,000 ounces) and an inferred resource of 12.7 million tonnes of grade 1.26 g/t gold (515,000 ounces).
Several strong mainly untested gold-in-soil anomalies occur within a short radius of the Cajueiro resource area and include Maria Bonita, Sossego and Novo Sonho. Maria Bonita is the strongest of these peripheral gold-in-soil anomalies and is open to the west, with the current footprint of the geochemical anomaly covering an area comparable in size to the entire Cajueiro mineral resource area.
On April 11, 2023, Altamira Gold shares closed at 20 cents, down 4.7%, and currently trade in a 52-week range of 30 cents and 10 cents.