AN independent confirmation metallurgical test work program has been recommended and designed for the Intec Sulphide Ore Treatment process at Monument Mining’s Selinsing Gold Project. The program was carried out by Orway Metallurgical Consultants after a review of results from the second Intec pilot campaign.

A section of the Intec Process pilot plant at Monument Mining’s Selinsing Gold Project in Malaysia.

The program was planned to ensure that results achieved from all test work programs at the Selinsing site will be verified by an independent certified metallurgical laboratory under required QA/QC standards and recognised controlled environment.

Monument says the results of the second pilot plant campaign have been analysed and are revealing for several reasons. Intec International Projects and DCS Technical have previously demonstrated that gold can be liberated from arsenopyrite material but not well from pyrite.

The second pilot run demonstrated in the first batch that the Intec Process completely dissolved pyrite, thus liberating gold from this type of material and making it available for recovery by conventional carbon in leach (CIL) methods. This was despite the fact that the pilot plant campaign did not complete satisfactorily and only operated batchwise due to mechanical issues.

Generation of the flotation concentrate from Buffalo Reef representative metallurgical drill program core samples for the second pilot plant campaign showed that on average more than 80% of gold was recovered into the concentrate. The concentrate was fed to the Intec Process pilot plant which, in the first batch using specific parameters, resulted in liberation of 86% of gold from the concentrate. Subsequent batches were adversely affected due to lack of aeration.

Further test work is ongoing to recover gold from the flotation tails which will be addressed in the Orway program and is expected to potentially increase overall gold recovery.

The Orway recommended test program is designed, at a bench scale level, to provide an independent confirmation of the recoveries of gold from sulphide resources that is planned to be mined from Buffalo Reef, using the Intec Process technology.

Capital and operating costs will be developed for the Intec Process, as well as for biological, and acid leaching process as alternatives for comparison purposes, and will be included in the study for the recovery of gold from Buffalo Reef sulphide mineralisation.

ALS Metallurgy in Perth, Western Australia and Burnie, Tasmania will undertake this work. The Burnie laboratory has been set up to accommodate a large range of test-work programs.