Treasury Metals posts "excellent" gold recovery test results from Goliath

Treasury Metals (TSE:TML) said metallurgical test results confirm "excellent" gold recoveries from its Goliath gold project, in Northwestern Ontario.

The mineral exploration company said results could support a feasibility study on the Goliath project in the near future.

Gold recovery, which was consistently high in all tests, ranged around 93 to 98 per cent. The company said the gravity recovery circuit and carbon in leach processing yielded an average gold extraction of 96 per cent.

In addition, a high proportion of the gold reported to a gravity concentrate ranged around 69 and 72 per cent.  

"These results are very encouraging as they clearly demonstrate that very high gold recovery rates using known low-cost separation methods," Treasury's chief executive Martin Walter said. 

"The company continues to deliver on the milestones we have committed to over the past few years and look forward to continued development of our mining project."

Results consisted of 163 samples from half diamond drill core taken from the Goliath deposit.

A master composite was composed from the samples and had a measured gold feed grade of about 2.2 grams per tonne (g/t). 

For variability testing, 10 separate composites were created to give a range of grades and sites across the mineralized zone, the company said.

The composites, which ranged in gold grade from about 0.4 to 15.4 g/t, were tested separately and returned recoveries of 93 to 98 per cent. 

The test revealed a range of 42 to 72 per cent of the gold is considered liberated or "free gold" with the remaining gold mass associated with pyrite, gangue or multi-phase.

With these results, Treasury said it is now able to move ahead on the process design and capital cost estimates to a feasibility level.

The 45 kilometre Goliath gold project is Treasury Metals' flagship project which encompasses the Thunder Lake gold deposit. 

The large property hosts numerous highly prospective targets that show potential to host gold mineralization including about six km of prospective strike along trend from the Thunder Lake gold deposit.

In the indicated category, the mineral resource stands at 3.4 million tonnes at 2.5 g/t holding 270,000 ounces of gold. The mineral resource, in the inferred category, stands at 10.6 million tonnes at 2.75 g/t and holds 930,000 gold ounces.