Follow Up Drilling And Studies To Further Confirm Development Potential
Initial metallurgical testwork completed on four samples selected from Ardea Resource Ltd’s (ASX:ARL) Lily Albany gold discovery located on a granted mining lease within the Goongarrie Nickel Cobalt Project (GNCP), 70km north west of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia has shown strong promise for future development options.
Laboratory testwork employing industry standard (gravity-leach) procedures attained very high gold recoveries of >95% under conditions and reagent consumptions matching industry norms for both shallow supergene oxide mineralisation and deep sulphide-bearing mineralisation.
Managing Director, Andrew Penkethman, said the metallurgical results are highly encouraging, and indicate that the Lily Albany discovery has potential to achieve reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction of gold.
“Ardea has rapidly advanced the understanding of the gold mineralisation in the Aphrodite North target area, with the confirmation of the Lily Albany gold discovery on 29 October 2020. To help determine the potential gold recoveries at Lily Albany ahead of further drill-appraisal, four composite RC samples were taken for metallurgical test work.
“The results indicate that conventional gravity and leach gold recoveries of greater than 95% can be achieved, with no refractory issues or deleterious contaminants. These results at this early project stage are important for assessing project priorities.
“Given the strong zones of gold mineralisation intersected thus far from exploration drilling, combined with the high gold extractions from metallurgical testwork, Lily Albany remains a priority project.
“An RC drill rig is planned to be back at site in December to resume drilling at the recent Zeus and Lily Albany gold discoveries. Diamond drilling is also being planned and a core rig will be secured to further assess our projects.
“Ardea continues to maintain momentum on the emerging Bardoc Tectonic Zone (BTZ) gold camp, hidden beneath transported cover, within its Goongarrie Nickel Cobalt Project tenements.
“With 65kms of strike of the major gold controlling BTZ covered by Ardea tenements, the Company is well placed to build upon the gold discovery success achieved thus far.”
In mid-August 2020, Ardea announced significant gold mineralisation from the first ever RC drilling in the Aphrodite North target area, within the Bardoc Tectonic Zone (BTZ) on Ardea’s Goongarrie Nickel Cobalt Project (GNCP) tenements.
Follow-up RC drilling confirmed a new gold discovery within the Aphrodite North target area, now named Lily Albany. Confirmation of the Lily Albany gold discovery confirmed the integrity of Ardea’s geological model, proposing an orogenic gold system within a layered mafic complex, that had not previously been explored before and was hidden by 10 to 40 metres of transported cover.
Follow up metallurgical bench-scale testing has been completed on four Lily Albany RC composite samples to determine routes for gold recovery. This is a necessary stage to establish that the deposit has Reasonable Prospects of Eventual Economic Extraction (RPEEE).
Significant additional work including resource drill out, resource estimation and mining studies are still required ahead of any mining operation.
As Ardea’s understanding of the Lily Albany gold discovery continues to evolve through additional exploration and resource definition drilling, further metallurgical testwork will be conducted to both confirm the deposit’s RPEEE status and to optimise the metallurgical parameters.
