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Copper Fox Metals (TSXV:CUU) and subsidiary Northern Fox Copper Inc. reported results from the preliminary metallurgical testwork for Carmax Mining Corp.’s Eaglehead copper-gold-molybdenum project located in British Columbia. The metallurgical tests concluded that the copper present are in the form of copper sulphides, primarily as chalcopyrite and bornite. Potential copper recoveries to the first cleaner test ranged from 89.8% in composite – 1 to 95.5% in composite – 3 with 92.2% recovery in the master composite.
As quoted in the press release:
Highlights:
- Three composite samples each representing a different copper grade (0.11%, 0.23% and 0.40%) and a master composite (0.26% copper) were subjected to characterization and open circuit flotation testwork. A total of 10 tests were completed.
- All the copper is present as copper sulphides, primarily as chalcopyrite and bornite.
- Six rougher kinetic tests achieved copper recoveries of 92.4% to 97.6%.
- Potential copper recoveries to the first cleaner test ranged from 89.8% in composite – 1 to 95.5% in composite – 3 with 92.2% recovery in the master composite.
- Copper recoveries in the third cleaner concentrate ranged from 77.1% to 92.7% with the corresponding concentrate containing between 21.1% and 37.9% copper.
- The potential metal content of the third cleaner concentrate are 11.8 g/t gold, 96 g/t silver and 0.816% molybdenum with low concentrations of arsenic, selenium and tin.
- Metal recoveries in the third cleaner concentrate ranged from 65-87% for gold, 71-80% for silver and 17-55% for molybdenum. The testwork suggests that the overall molybdenum recovery may improve in closed circuit testing (locked cycle tests).
- Tests to upgrade molybdenum recovery in a separate molybdenum cleaner circuit were not completed.
… Recommendations:
SGS has made the following recommendations for further testwork on the copper mineralization from the Eaglehead project:
Further optimization of the rougher and cleaner stages to establish an optimal flowsheet.
Further testing with primary grind sizes of K80 = 200 – 300 μm to understand the impact of coarser grinds.
Locked cycle testing once optimization is complete, to provide robust metallurgical projections for economic evaluations.
A geo-statistical evaluation of the representation of the samples selected for testing in context of the overall geochemical model.The samples used in the testwork were collected from drill core from the Eaglehead copper-molybdenum-gold deposit. Three grade classes were selected for testing and each grade class is designated Composite-1, Composite-2 and Composite-3. The Master Composite was blended from an equal amount from each Composite sample. Each composite was blended and rotary split into 2 kilogram representative sub-samples for the testwork. A total of 10 samples were prepared for testing. The testwork (rougher and cleaner tests on each sample) consisted of six tests on the master composite and four tests on the composite samples. The rougher kinetic tests on the master composite were used to determine the effect of grind size on flotation performance at grinding sizes ranging from K80 = 88-181 microns. Based on the results of this work, a grind size of K80 = 100 microns was selected as the optimal for the remainder of the testwork. The cleaner tests on the master composite achieved copper recoveries ranging from 94.4% to 95.9%. The rougher performance of the cleaner tests was similar to the rougher kinetic tests. The cleaner tests on the composite samples achieved similar copper recoveries and grades as the rougher stage of the tests.
Copper Fox President, Elmer Stewart, said:
We are very pleased with the preliminary characterization testwork on the mineralization from the Eaglehead project, particularly with the percentage copper recovery in the low grade sample. The purpose of this work was to determine the preliminary metallurgical characteristics of the mineralization from the Eaglehead project. The positive results from these tests indicate that a significant amount of the copper can be recovered from the mineralization into clean concentrates with good copper grades containing significant by-product credits. With these results in hand, we will work with Carmax to plan a program to be completed in 2015. Additional testwork when completed would include a more detailed and comprehensive testing program as well as preparation of a separate molybdenum concentrate and a significant number of locked cycle tests.
Click here to read the Copper Fox Metals (TSXV:CUU) press release
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