Prodigy Gold reports 92% average gold recovery for 20 samples from Magino

Prodigy Gold (CVE:PDG) announced Thursday metallurgical test results from samples at its Magino mine gold project in Ontario, showing an average gold recovery for all 20 samples of 92%.
For the ten samples with feed grades greater than 0.35 grams per tonne (g/t) of gold, the cut off grade for the gold resource, combined gravity and cyanide gold recovery was 95%.
Even for the ten samples with grades less than the cut off, average recovery was 89%, ranging from 63 to 99%, the company said.
"These data demonstrate that potential gold recoveries in a conventional milling circuit at Magino are excellent, especially for gold mineralized rock above the cut off grade for the deposit," the company said in a statement on Thursday.
The fact that mineralized rock below the current cut off grade also exhibits good gold recoveries provides future "operational flexibility", it added.
The information from the metallurgical testing program will be included in an updated preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for the Magino mine - expected in early November.
The last PEA for Magino, which is being assessed as an open pit mine with the potential for deeper, higher grade gold production, showed a pre-tax net present value of $351 million, and a 49% internal rate of return, using a 5% discount rate. The proposed operation is estimated to have an average annual gold output of over 166,000 ounces a year during a nine year project life.
Total gold production is forecast at 1.50 million ounces at cash costs of approximately US$496 (C$521) per ounce.
A full feasibility study for the open pit mining project at Magino is scheduled for the second quarter 2012, Prodigy said.
The twenty samples used in the metallurgical testing program, which averaged about 15 kilograms in weight, ranged in feed grade from 0.07 g/t gold to 5.99 g/t gold, and focused on lower grade material.
President and CEO of Prodigy, Brian J. Maher, commented: "These test results confirm earlier metallurgical testing and mirror the historic gold recoveries from milling operations at Magino."
"Excellent gold recoveries from the lower grade samples supports the milling assumptions used in the PEA for Magino and represents another important milestone for the project."