American Tungsten (CSE:TUNG) has received results from a metallurgical testwork program at the IMA Mine Project in Idaho, which reinforces the project’s robustness of the material’s response to dense media.
The company and its contractors are actively interpreting the results and planning for additional metallurgical and process design testing. This may include HLS crush size variability tests, locked cycle Falcon gravity testing, sulphide pre-flotation with Falcon contraction, magnetic separation for concentrate upgrading and geo-metallurgical variability.
Additional metallurgical testing by Sepro Laboratories of historical tailings material is ongoing.
Sepro Laboratories was contracted to conduct gravity and flotation test work on polymetallic tungsten quartz vein material from the IMA Mine.
Around 130kgs of representative materials were collected from six sample channels in the No.5 and No.7 veins on the D level of the IMA Mine and provided to Sepro for bench scale metallurgical testing.
Head assays for the material show average grades of 1.1% tungsten oxide, 83 parts per million (ppm) silver, 0.09 % copper, 0.037% molybdenum, and 0.41% tin.
The aim of the testwork was to evaluate the amenability of mineralised materials to a gravity flotation flowsheet, including dense media separation, Falcon centrifugal gravity concentrate, tabling and flotation methods.
American Tungsten reports the initial gravity stage achieved 84.4% tungsten oxide recovery at a 29.6% mass pull, while the staged Falcon gravity concentration with re-grinding achieved 94.4% tungsten oxide recovery.
Meanwhile, heavy liquid separation achieved 91.1% tungsten oxide recovery with 33.8% mass pull and sulphides effectively concentrated by flotation, recovering 83.2% copper, 72% silver and 59.1% molybdenum with minimal tungsten oxide loss.
CEO Ali Haji says coupled with the momentum from the recently completed US$40 million ($50.07 million) bought deal financing, the company is in a strong position to expedite technical de-risking.
“We remain focused on driving value creation as we move the project toward its next stages,” Haji says.
The IMA Mine is a past producing underground tungsten mine situated on 22 patented claims located in East Central Idaho.
American Tungsten is a Canadian exploration company focused on high-potential tungsten and magnetite assets in North America.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: American Tungsten
