Shares of Marifil Mines (CVE:MFM) rose Tuesday after the company revealed preliminary metallurgical results from the Zone 34 oxide gold target at its San Roque project in Argentina, saying it found high gold recoveries.
The bottle roll cyanide recovery tests were meant to determine the amenability of the oxide mineralization to heap leach gold extraction, the company said, calling them "highly successful".
It added that it plans to move forward with further testing and drilling of this gold deposit.
The preliminary tests were based on composite drill core samples from three holes, which were sent to the Alex Steward lab in Argentina for testing.
The company said the lab carried out metallic screen assays to see if coarse gold was present, and the assays of the three composites plus one duplicate sample showed that 95% of the gold reports to the "-140 mesh fraction".
"This is important because fine-grained gold leaches more readily than coarse-grained gold," Marifil said in its statement.
The results for the 96-hour leach were 92.43%, 85.28%, and 95.14% recoveries of gold, respectively.
The company also announced that silver recoveries were lower than expected, but that this is typical for heap leach operations. It noted that silver accounts for less than 20% of the dollar value of the deposit.
The Vancouver-based company said last month that it found the "heap leachable" gold deposit at the zone 34 area. The zone hosts two sub-parallel gold-bearing structures about 125 metres apart, each more than 200 metres in length - named the west and the east system.
Mineralization at both systems is "thoroughly oxidized", to a depth of 30 to 35 metres. Zone 34, which represents a "sparsely explored" sector of the property, differs from the focus area of past drilling, Marifil said, as it lacks significant base metal and indium mineralization.
The absence of base metals, especially copper, boosts the leachability of precious metals mineralization, the junior explorer noted at the time.
The last episode of drilling on the property ended with diamond drill core hole DDHMSR-0034, which returned 35 metres (oxidized) of 2.27 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and 42.6 g/t silver from surface down followed by 37.5 metres (unoxidized) of 1.12 g/t gold and 15.3 g/t silver from 155.5 to 193.0 metres.
The company also said in December that if results from lab bottle roll cyanide leach tests were positive, it expects to follow them with column leach tests to further determine "gold leachability characteristics".
Marifil is a Canadian exploration company that focuses on Argentina. Through its joint venture opportunities, it has been able to develop a diverse portfolio of properties, including several with bonanza grade gold, silver, copper and indium values.
The company has a land position of 20 properties, totalling more than 400,000 hectares within nine provinces of Argentina. It recently resumed the operator role at its Las Aguilas property after miner Prophecy Platinum (CVE:NKL) decided not to move forward with their joint venture agreement.
It also last month regained ownership of the Mina El Carmen oil and gas property in Chubut Province, Argentina.
Shares in the junior explorer rose by 1 penny to 6 cents late Tuesday Morning.
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