Mawson Gold hails results of geometallurgical testing by BATCircle project at Rajapalot

Mawson Gold Limited (TSE:MAW) (OTCPINK:MWSNF) (FRA:MXR) has hailed the results of ‘comprehensive’ geometallurgical testing at its Rajapalot gold-cobalt project in Finland, which showed flotation could be the best method to recover gold and cobalt.

The work was carried out by BATCircle, which is funded by Business Finland, in cooperation with several consortium members, including the company, the Geological Survey of Finland (GTK), and also Aalto University.

Mawson said more testing would be carried out to further optimize gold and cobalt recoveries and define a definitive flowsheet.

READ: Mawson Gold posts strong results from Rajapalot drilling, including new discovery at The Hut prospect

“The most comprehensive metallurgical studies performed at Rajapalot to date demonstrate excellent gold recoveries with a viable flowsheet which could include crushing and grinding, gravity recovery, and cyanide leaching with gold recovery via a carbon-in-pulp circuit for production of onsite gold doré,” Mike Hudson, the CEO of Mawson, told investors in a statement.

“Rajapalot is already the 7th largest European cobalt resource, and the BATCircle test work has shown potential to obtain industrial acceptable recoveries to produce cobalt concentrates that could be further treated by hydrometallurgical methods (leaching, solvent extraction, purification) to produce cobalt sulphate.”

Hudson noted that the battery supply chain is now “demanding sustainable and ethically sourced metals and minerals” and that the Finnish ability to deliver against these demands, via projects such as Rajapalot, is a “unique and competitive advantage”.

Highlights of the BATCircle findings included that gold recoveries by conventional cyanidation across multiple resource areas were “excellent” at between 97.3% to 98% and compared well with earlier studies by Mawson. Gravity concentration yielded recoveries of 44% for gold and 20% for cobalt.

In addition, it found that flotation could be the most effective separation process to recover both gold and cobalt, with results suggesting recovery rates and concentrate grades above 90% and 100 grams per ton (g/t) for gold, and between 23%-63% and above 1% for cobalt.

For cobaltite, which is the most common cobalt mineral at the property, recovery rates were between 78%-93%, noted Mawson.

BATCircle was developed and funded by Business Finland and is a €21 million project with 23 consortium partners. It is now drawing to a close after 24 months.

Mawson’s Rajapalot asset sits in Finnish Lapland, just south of the arctic circle, where both high-grade gold and cobalt have been discovered over a camp-scale area of more than 10 square kilometres (sq km). The company also holds gold assets in Australia.

Contact the author at [email protected]

Story by ProactiveInvestors