Mawson Gold unveils gold-cobalt recovery tests
Mawson Gold Ltd. [MAW-TSX; MWSNF-OTC; MXR-FSE] Chairman and CEO Michael Hudson said Monday June 7 that he is pleased with metallurgical test results from the company’s 100%-owned Rajapalot Project in Finland.
Metallurgical test results released Monday are from the BATCircle joint research project geometallurgical orientation study. The study is funded by Business Finland in co-operation with several consortium members, including Mawson, the Geological Survey of Finland (GTK) and Aalto University.
“The most comprehensive metallurgical studies performed at Rajapalot to date demonstrate excellent gold recoveries with viable flowsheet which could include crushing and grinding, gravity recovery, and cyanide leaching with gold recovery via a carbon-in-pulp circuit for production of onsite gold doré,” Hudson said.
Rajapalot is already the seventh largest European cobalt resource, and the BATCircle test work has shown potential to obtain industrial acceptable recoveries to produce cobalt concentrate that could be further treated by hydrometallurgical methods (leaching, solvent extraction, purification) to produce cobalt sulphate.
Hudson said the battery supply chain, through to the customer, is demanding sustainable and ethically-sourced metals and minerals and the Finnish ability to deliver against those demands, via projects such as Rajapalot is a unique and competitive advantage.
Mawson said flotation could be the most effective separation process to recover both gold and cobalt. Results suggest recovery rates and concentrate grades above 90% and 100 g/t for gold and between 23%-63% and above 1% for cobalt, with recovery rates between 78%-93% for cobalite (the most common cobalt mineral at Rajapalot.
However, while test work results described in the study do not allow for the establishment of a definitive flowsheet for the Rajapalot project, it provides grounds for future work and the next stage of the geometallurgical campaign, whereby different process paths are tested.
The company said next steps are further continuous cycle test-work to optimize gold and cobalt recoveries, and the development of a definitive flowsheet.
The Rajapalot Project forms the eastern part of a 10 x 10-km area consisting of three resource bodies plus two new discovery areas within a 4.0 x 3.0-km area in Northern Finland. The project is located just south of the Arctic Circle in Finnish Lapland.
Rajapalot is on a runway towards further resource expansion with only 5.0% of the mineralized host horizon tested within a 100 km2 area, the company has said.
Mawson recently said the estimated gold-cobalt mineral resource at Rajapalot Project has doubled in the last 20 months.
The open pit and underground constrained inferred mineral resource is estimated to be 9.0 million tonnes averaging 2.1 g/t gold, 570 ppm cobalt, an amount that equates to 2.5 g/t gold equivalent or 600,000 ounces (716,000 oz AuEq).
On Monday, Mawson shares were unchanged at 27.5 cens. The shares are currently trading in a 52-week range of 57 cents and 22.5 cents.