Channel Resources sees up to 95.3% gold recovery in metallurgical results from Tanlouka

Channel Resources (CVE:CHU) Thursday reported “favorable metallurgical test results” from its Tanlouka gold project in Burkina Faso, West Africa, sending shares higher.
Six cyanide bottle roll tests, simulating carbon-in-leach (CIL) plant conditions, were conducted on both oxide and sulphide samples, and the tests assessed the effects of primary grind, cyanide dosage and density at various leach times, the company said.
Highlights from the tests, at 72 hours, yielded gold recoveries ranging from 92.9 to 95.3 per cent in oxide samples from LO-1 to LO-6.
Sulphide samples LS-1 to LS-6 at 72 hours yielded gold recoveries of 84.7 to 92.3 per cent.
The company said that a series of metallurgical tests, including grind calibration, gravity test, whole ore leach, gravity tailings leach, coarse ore bucket roll tests and environmental studies, were conducted on drill core samples taken from near-surface oxide and deeper sulphide mineralization at the project’s Mankarga 5 deposit at Tanlouka.
Gravity separation tests were completed for each mineralization type to evaluate the potential for gravity recoverable gold from two grind sizes using a Knelson concentrator followed by a Mozley shaking table.
The oxide sample yielded a 45.8 per cent gold recovery from a 90 micron feed and a 29.6 per cent recovery from a 66 micron feed.  The sulphide sample recovered 27.6 per cent gold from a 121 micron feed and 19.2 per cent gold from a 149 micron feed, the company said.
The company reported that bottle roll cyanide leaching of the tailings from the Knelson concentrator and Mozley table separation tests yielded gold recoveries of 92.2 per cent from the oxide, and 83.8 per cent from the sulphide samples.
Cumulative gold recoveries for gravity concentration followed by tailings leach were estimated at 95.2 per cent from the oxide and 89.1 per cent from the sulphide composite samples.
Channel said its activities at the Tanlouka gold project are focused on both advancing the Mankarga 5 deposit as quickly as possible through to feasibility and development.
The company said the “favourable metallurgical characteristics” of the Mankarga 5 deposit announced Thursday are a critical milestone in the development of the target.
Channel is expected to report a maiden resource estimate for the Mankarga 5 deposit in the near future. The latest drill results, together with those of 58 reverse circulation (RC) holes for 7,096 metres drilled previously at Mankarga 5, will form the basis of the report currently being prepared by AMEC Americas.
Highlights from recent drill results include hole DD39, which intersected 37.5 metres of 1.38 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and hole DD41, which hit 25.5 metres of 1.47 g/t gold.
The company is also poised to report on the results from 2,000 metres of core drilling recently completed in the area of the Mankarga 1 target, which started in April. This was done to follow up on previous high-grade discovery holes drilled in 2010, and also to investigate possible continuity between Mankarga 5 and Mankarga 1.
In addition, the miner said that results will soon be released from soil sampling programs underway on the Manesse and Tanwaka target areas to the north of the Mankarga Zone on the 79 square kilometre Tanlouka permit.
Future drill programs and other exploration activities are being planned for Mankarga 5 and other targets on the Tanlouka project, with results to be announced as they become available.
The mineral explorer announced at the end of April that it earned its 100 per cent stake in the Fox Creek mineral brine project, in Alberta. The total in-place resource for this project was calculated at 245 million tonnes for sodium, 18.8 million tonnes for potassium, 54.8 million tonnes calcium, 11.6 million tonnes for magnesium, 694,000 tonnes for boron, 1.33 million tonnes for bromine and 362,000 tonnes for lithium.
Channel’s shares were up 4.35 per cent as at 9:47 am EDT, trading at 12 cents.