Chesapeake Gold Corp. (TSXV: CKG | OTCQX: CHPGF) has provided a metallurgical update for its Metates gold-silver project located in Durango State, Mexico, and an update regarding the latest developments on the company’s intellectual property rights.
Jean-Paul Tsotsos, interim chief executive officer, commented, “We are pleased that the metallurgical test work achieved gold recovery rates exceeding 70%, providing verification that our proprietary oxidative leach technology is working as planned. These test results will be the foundation for a Metates pre-feasibility study. Looking further ahead, the recent acquisition of certain intellectual property rights was a significant strategic milestone for Chesapeake to capitalize on unlocking the economic value of other opportunities in the US$1.5T market of refractory ores globally.”
Over the past year, Metates massive intrusive samples were tested by a variation of crush size and pH conditions together with a proprietary mix of reagents to achieve higher oxidation rates. The samples were oxidized to specific duration targets (i.e. 0 days, ~126 days, ~146 days, and ~204 days) to establish an oxidation to precious metal recovery curve. This curve will be the basis for evaluating the optimal duration of oxidative leach and realized precious metals recoveries relative to the cost trade-off for the Technology process and working capital requirements.
The above graph illustrates Metates massive intrusive results over the various durations of oxidative leach. As expected, the longer the duration of oxidative leach, higher oxidation levels are achieved. Higher oxidation levels were positively correlated to higher gold recoveries through cyanide leaching. With no pre-oxidation, a 33% gold recovery was realized. After 204 days of oxidation, a ~74% gold recovery was achieved.
The results above also highlight an improvement in silver recoveries by applying the Technology relative to an untreated, non-oxidized baseline sample. After 146 days, the oxidation process increased the silver recoveries by over 20%. Silver represents approximately 30% of the economic value of Metates. Future test work will focus on improving and optimizing the conditions to increase the silver recoveries.
Since acquiring certain intellectual property rights, the company has filed its own separate patent application from innovative test work.
Next Steps
Technologies identified in Chesapeake’s new patent application filing will be applied to the next round of test work. Additional Metates core material from the 2021/2022 drilling programme has been collected and is being shipped to the laboratory. The next stage of metallurgical activities will test intrusive material in larger diameter columns to provide final conditions for pilot plant and commercial operations.
The recent metallurgical test work will be incorporated into a PFS. During the past year, the company has continued its environmental baseline work and related studies in support of the PFS. The PFS will de-risk Metates further and advance the project toward our goal of developing one of America’s largest gold and silver deposits. In addition, the Company is actively seeking other sulphide gold deposits where the Technology can be applied to potentially unlock significant economic value.
To read more about this, please visit www.chesapeakegold.com
To read more news like this, please visit www.theassay.com/news
