GGX Gold talks tellurium: a critical mineral commodity

GGX Gold Corp (CVE:GGX) (OTCQB:GGXXF) released an update Thursday, outlining more information about the critical mineral commodity, tellurium. 

The company recently announced that the re-examination of core from its Fall 2018 drill program at the Gold Drop project in British Columbia has confirmed high-grade tellurium.

READ: GGX Gold says re-analysis of Gold Drop core confirms high grade tellurium

Tellurium is on the list of 35 critical mineral commodities deemed critical to security and prosperity of the United States and there are pending tellurium shortages, due to traditional recovery methods becoming obsolete.

It’s a chemical element with the symbol Te, and is a brittle, rare, silver-white metalloid. Tellurium (Te) is one of the rarest elements on earth and its production is a by-product of copper and gold mining. 

According to the US Geological Survey, tellurium’s primary use is for manufacturing films essential to thin film photovoltaic solar cells. When alloyed with other elements, such as cadmium, tellurium forms a compound that exhibits enhanced electrical conductivity. A thin film can efficiently absorb sunlight and convert it into electricity.

Solar panels booming

The past decade has seen explosive growth in the production of thin-film solar panels.

According to Global Market Insights, thin film cadmium telluride solar panel production — which today accounts for 40% of Tellurium consumption — is expected to grow from US$8 billion in 2016 to over US$30 billion by 2024.

According to GGX, as the use of tellurium in thin-film solar applications grows, governments and industry have expressed concerns about the supply of tellurium to meet future demand.

Most of the world’s tellurium comes from copper refining.

However, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) has noted that, due to declining copper grades worldwide, “New copper recovery processes are being considered for implementation, but these methods do not recover tellurium. As a result, alternative sources for this critical element must be considered.”

Re-analysis of Gold Drop shows high-grade tellurium

GGX announced recently core from its Fall 2018 drill program at the Gold Drop project in BC confirmed high-grade tellurium

The tellurium results from two drill holes, COD18-67 and COD18-70 showed high-grade tellurium 

The re-examination showed COD18-67 hosted 129 g/t gold, 1154 g/t silver and 823 g/t tellurium over a 7.28-meter core length.

Meanwhile, COD18-70 showed 107 g/t gold, 880 g/t silver and 640 g/t tellurium over a 6.90-meter core length.

Contact Katie Lewis at [email protected]

Story by ProactiveInvestors