Western Gold Resources inches closer to gold production

Man holding gold nuggets.
Man holding gold nuggets.

Following metallurgical test work at the Gold Duke project, Western Gold Resources (ASX:WGR) is one step closer to becoming a gold producer.

Perth-based BHM Process Consultants undertook the test work to determine the amenability of the orebodies to heap leaching and carbon-in-leach (CIL) processing.

Notably for Western Gold, results from this work pointed towards a low capex gold operation.

Samples were taken from oxide ore stockpiles which were previously sampled as part of a trial toll-treatment program.

Both a high-grade (153kg) and a low-grade (137kg) composite were formed from the stockpiles and submitted to Nagrom laboratory. The high-grade sample returned a grade of 2g/t gold while the low-grade sample returned a grade of 0.10g/t gold.

Column leaching of a composite feed grade between 0.7g/t and 0.8g/t gold oxide returned recoveries of 52.9% after 51 days, equating to a heap leach extraction of 71% gold within 70 days.

Extraction around 80% is likely under standard operational conditions with a typical heap leach cycle rate of 90 days.

Additionally, CIL processing achieved 95.3% gold extraction.

Western Gold managing director Warren Thorne says the work produced a highly desirable outcome for the company.

“WGR has been investigating the optimal pathway to production at the Gold Duke project,” he said.

“The preliminary column leach test gold recoveries suggest that Gold Duke oxide is amenable to low-cost, low-capex heap leach techniques.

“A heap leach would mean that WGR would not need to construct a mill, nor share revenue with external parties for toll treatment in a mill.”

Based on these results, Western Gold will work with BHM to create a metallurgical drill program to test effect on recovery on samples from different parts of the orebody.

Further column leaching test work may further optimise the results and Western Gold will consider the effect of different crush sizes and the effect of particle size on gold recovery.  

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