Montero Mining says RE mineralization at Wigu Hill amenable to X-Ray sorting, with 80% recovery

Montero Mining & Exploration (CVE:MON) said Wednesday that rare earth dike mineralization from its flagship Wigu Hill property in Tanzania has shown to be amenable to upgrading by X-Ray sorting, with over 80 percent recovery.
The junior miner, headquartered in Toronto, said its initial X-Ray sorting tests done on bastnaesite rich samples and waste rock samples from the Twiga zone show that ore is amendable to X-Ray sorting, with samples upgraded by 55 percent, based on lanthanum and cerium content.
Moreover, more than 80 percent of the rare earth elements were recovered in the feed.
Together with Mintek, Montero has been active in mineral processing and metallurgical testwork to test the Wigu Hill carbonatite material for recovery of rare earths.
Montero sent hand-picked rock samples of varied geological and mineralogical compositions from the Twiga zone to the Mintek facility in South Africa, to identify the variation of rare earth content using the Rados XRF Ore sorter.
Samples were individually analyzed, identifying material with greater than 10% total rare earth oxide (TREO), 6 to 9% TREO and material with other geological compositions with lesser REE content and barren waste wall rock material.
The Rados XRF sorter was used to separate the material into a concentrate of high-grade material and discarded material, with particles from each stream chemically analysed to quantify the separation.
The company said the results indicate that a significant amount of carbonate waste material was removed and therefore the unwanted calcium, magnesium and iron contaminants were reduced in the final concentrate.
The Rados XRF sorter is considered to be a green technology because it uses no water and consumes very low levels of electricity.
The tests were also able to tell the difference between REE barren, low-grade and high grade particles, the company said.
"The results of the RADOS XRF Ore Sorter Phase 1 test work completed by Mintek have provided us with a greater confidence in the ability to selectively mine higher grade material from the Twiga Zone at Wigu Hill," chief executive Tony Harwood said in a statement.
Montero also noted that test work has the potential to upgrade run-of-mine material and reduce acid consumers through the sorter’s ability to reject waste material, while reducing the costs of mining and processing rare earth mineralization.
Last week, the company unveiled results from infill diamond drill holes on the Twiga zone, which is located on the far eastern edge of the Wigu Hill project, in Tanzania.
The in-fill drilling program consisted of 17 core boreholes for 900 metres, which were drilled at roughly 25 metre spacings and down to an average inclined depth of 35 metres.
Hole TW016 hit 7.35 percent total rare earth oxides (TREO) over 11.5 metres. Other notable results included 5.12 percent TREO over 2.19 metres, including 8.93 TREO over 1.13 metres in hole TW018, and 6.17 percent TREO over 7.01 metres, including 11.01 percent TREO over 2.54 metres in hole TW019.
Rare earth elements, a group of 15 metals, are critical in the development of emerging green technologies and high-tech applications, from electric and hybrid vehicles and wind and hydro power turbines, to LCD screens, MRI, X-ray machines, mobile devices and other computing equipment.
Montero Mining is a mineral exploration and development company focused on rare earth elements, phosphates and uranium in Tanzania, South Africa and Quebec, Canada.
Shares traded at 24 cents each Wednesday morning in Toronto.