Commerce Resources Completes Leach Mini-Pilot Plant at Ashram

Commerce Resources (TSXV:CCE) has completed its leach mini-pilot plant at its Ashram rare earths project, and has also produced the highest-grade mineral concentrate to date from the deposit.
As quoted in the press release:

The work was completed as part of the 2^nd Phase of the pilot plant, designed to leach bulk flotation concentrate produced during the first phase of the pilot plant. Both continuous and batch leach pilots have now been completed, as well as bench scale testing of the piloted material through to a final mineral concentrate to demonstrate the robustness of the entire process.
Highlights include:

• Successful demonstration that the leach process is robust and scalable from bench level (<4 kg) to pilot level (>300 kg) using both continuous and batch methods
• Production of a 49% TREO mineral concentrate at an overall recovery of ~63% using residue produced from the leach pilot
  • 46% TREO at ~71% recovery with additional processing

Commerce Resources president and CEO, Chris Grove, said:

We are highly encouraged by these results from the 2^nd Phase of the pilot plant program. The production of these high-grade mineral concentrates using piloted material as feed is a significant milestone, with the ongoing program continuing to demonstrate that the flowsheet for the Ashram Deposit is simple, robust, and scalable using standard commercial methods.

Click here for the full press release.