GOLD: Leaching test recovery tops 85% from Coffee oxide samples

YUKON – Kaminak Gold Corp. of Vancouver is encouraged that column leach tests of bulk, coarsely crushed surface oxide samples from the Coffee gold project 130 km south of Dawson City resulted in gold recoveries between 85% and 88%. Samples from the Supremo and Latte zones were crushed to 15-cm diameter and leached for 100 to 150 days. Gold recovery jumped to 92% over the same period when the samples were crushed to 2.5 cm.

Bottle roll leach tests of identical samples revealed little advantage to fine grinding. At a grind of P80 0.075 mm recoveries were 96% for Supremo material and 94% for Latte material over 96 hours.

Kaminak noted that the comparative results indicate that heap leaching will probably be the most economical processing method.

To view the January 2014 technical report on the Coffee project, please click here.