VANCOUVER, May 14,
2014 /CNW/ - Gold Reach Resources Ltd. (GRV: TSX-V) (Gold
Reach and/or the Company) is pleased to announce results of
metallurgical test work conducted on a large composite sample from
the West Seel deposit at the Company's 100% owned Ootsa Property,
located adjacent to the producing Huckleberry Mine south of
Smithers, British Columbia.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Excellent Overall Metallurgical Results – The West Seel
deposit shows very good metallurgical results by conventional froth
flotation recovery methods, with rougher flotation recoveries up to
95.1% for copper and 94.5% for molybdenum.
- Rapid Flotation Kinetics at West Seel – The flotation
kinetics of the West Seel material are rapid achieving >91%
copper and molybdenum recoveries after only 6 minutes of flotation
in a laboratory cell.
- Copper Concentrate – A copper concentrate containing
24.3% copper, 8.92 g/t gold, and 200.9 g/t silver was obtained
after 2 cleaning stages with overall recoveries of 89.2% for
copper, 75.7% for gold, and 79.2% for silver.
- Molybdenum Concentrate – A molybdenum concentrate
grading 51.9% molybdenum was produced after 2 cleaning stages with
overall molybdenum recovery of 79.7%.
Metallurgical Studies
Metallurgical
testing was performed by Inspectorate Exploration and Mining
Services Ltd. located in Richmond British
Columbia, and advanced testing was done on a 314 kilogram
single composite representative sample from 2013 drill core from
the West Seel deposit. Test grinding was performed and two
batch rougher and two batch rougher-cleaner tests were completed to
verify the metallurgy of the new sample and optimize the reagent
scheme. An optimized copper concentrate was produced and two
molybdenum separation tests were performed.
Overall the West Seel composite has very similar
metallurgical characteristics as the Ox and East Seel deposits,
however, the flotation kinetics of the West Seel sample were
comparatively faster, achieving >91% Cu and Mo recoveries after
only 6 minutes of flotation in a laboratory cell. Results for
2 rougher flotation tests are summarized below. The best
recoveries of copper and molybdenum were 95.1 and 94.5%,
respectively in test F2.
Rougher Circuit Results West Seel
Sample
Test
|
Grind
Size
|
Feed
Grade
%
Cu
|
Feed
Grade
%
Mo
|
Feed
Grade
g/t
Au
|
Rougher Circuit
Recovery %
|
|
|
Cu
|
Mo
|
Au
|
Ag
|
F1
|
100
|
0.32
|
0.04
|
0.27
|
94.1
|
92.7
|
66.1
|
55.5
|
F2
|
92
|
0.32
|
0.04
|
0.27
|
95.1
|
94.5
|
77.7
|
85.1
|
A pyrite scavenger flotation test was conducted
and resulted in an additional 17% gold recovery in test F1,
bringing total gold recovery up to 83.1% in that sample. This is a
very significant increase in gold recovery for the West Seel
deposit, which contains a pit constrained total of 409,000 ounces
of gold in the measured and indicated categories plus an additional
1.1 million ounces of gold in the inferred category. A gold
mineralogical study is underway to better understand the mineral
associations and liberation size of gold in the sulphide matrix,
and this information may help optimize gold recoveries. A
copper separation test resulted in a 2nd cleaner stage
concentrate grading 24.3% copper, 8.92 g/t gold, and 200.9 g/t
silver with overall recoveries of 89.2% for copper, 75.7% for gold,
and 79.2% for silver.
A molybdenum separation test resulted in a
2nd cleaner stage concentrate grading 51.9% molybdenum
with an overall molybdenum recovery of 79.7%. A third
cleaning stage resulted in a molybdenum concentrate grade of 53.6%,
however, overall molybdenum recovery was reduced to 54.9%. It
was therefore recommended that only two stages of cleaning be
employed in the molybdenum circuit.
Based on the current metallurgical test work the
predicted metallurgical recoveries are summarized in the table
below. The West Seel deposit shows excellent copper recovery
at 92.1% with molybdenum, gold, and silver recoveries in line with
operating porphyry deposits. With the pyrite concentrate
included, the overall recovery for gold would increase to 72.2% and
for silver to 60.7%. Further test work on a larger
sample, perhaps a pilot plant trial, would allow locked-cycle tests
to be run to see how recirculating tails might increase overall
recoveries.
Predicted Metallurgical Concentrate Grades and
Recoveries Under Optimized Conditions
|
|
Concentrate
Grades
|
Recovery
%
|
%
Cu
|
%
Mo
|
g/t
Au
|
g/t
Ag
|
Cu
|
Mo
|
Au
|
Ag
|
3rd
cleaner Cu Con
|
21.4
|
2.4
|
9.37
|
182.6
|
92.1
|
76.6
|
58.5
|
45.9
|
Pyrite Con
|
0.10
|
0.01
|
0.62
|
16.6
|
1.5
|
1.2
|
13.7
|
14.8
|
2nd
cleaner Mo Con
|
0.40
|
47.9
|
4.89
|
29.0
|
0.1
|
61.1
|
1.2
|
0.3
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Shane Ebert,
President of the company stated, "metallurgical test work has now
confirmed that excellent recoveries are achievable at all three
deposits on the Ootsa project by industry standard processing
techniques, and additional test work might be able to increase
recoveries even further. The metallurgy of the West Seel
deposit appears to be simple and copper and molybdenum separation
can be achieved very rapidly. These positive metallurgical results
continue to remove project risk as the company advances the Ootsa
project towards preliminary economics".
Plans for 2014
Planning for the 2014
exploration program at Ootsa is underway and drilling is scheduled
to commence during the first week of June. The focus
for 2014 will be to optimize the economic potential of the project
through expanding known zones of higher grade mineralization at the
West Seel deposit, and for the first time targeting several high
grade silver base metal veins. In addition several porphyry
copper exploration targets surrounding the Ox and Seel deposits
will be tested.
A summary of 2014 exploration targets at Ootsa is
available on our website at
http://goldreachresources.com.
For more information please see our website at
http://goldreachresources.com. All of our recent news
releases can be viewed on the Company's website at
http://goldreachresources.com/news/2013/.
About Gold Reach Resources
The Ootsa
property is an advanced stage exploration project containing the
East Seel, West Seel and Ox porphyry systems all with NI 43-101
compliant resources. The Company has completed 134,878 metres
of core drilling on the property to date, with 36,135 metres
completed during 2013. In total the Ootsa property
contains compliant pit constrained resources totaling 1.25 billion
pounds copper equivalent in the measured and indicated categories
and 1.66 billion pounds copper equivalent in the inferred category,
using a 0.2% copper equivalent cut off.
For more information on the Ootsa property and
the contained resources please see our website at
http://goldreachresources.com.
Dr. Shane Ebert
P.Geo., President of the Company, is the Qualified Person
for the Ootsa project as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and
has approved the technical disclosure contained in this news
release.
"Shane Ebert"
Shane Ebert,
President/Director
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its
Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the
policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for
the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Safe Harbour Statement:
The Company relies upon litigation protection for "forward-looking
statements." The Company undertakes no obligation to update these
forward- looking statements in the managements beliefs, estimates
obligations or other factors should change.
SOURCE Gold Reach Resources Ltd.