Black Canyon (ASX:BCA) has upgraded manganese oxide composites to grades near or exceeding 44% manganese from beneficiation test work from drill core composites returned from the Wandanya Project in Western Australia.
The company completed heavy liquid separation (HLS) test work on low-, medium- and high-grade manganese oxide composites in the second stage of testing, using a density-based separation technique across different size fractions.
‘High-grade’ manganese oxide composite material upgraded from a raw feed grade of 45% manganese to grades of between 48.2% and 49.9% manganese.
Meanwhile, medium-grade composite upgraded from 30.9% manganese to grades of between 39.3% and 40.3%, and low-grade composite upgraded from 24.4% manganese to grades of between 37.9% and 41.8%.
Recoveries from the high- and medium-grade feeds ranged between 91% and 87%, respectively. The company says the beneficiated manganese products showed low deleterious elements.
Managing Director Brendan Cummins says the results demonstrate the quality and grade of manganese oxide that could potentially be produced from the project.
“Continuing on from the positive crush and sizing analysis, the beneficiation test work applied to the manganese oxide composites have yet again delivered strong results for the project,” Cummins says.
“Most of the manganese product grades from the beneficiated low-, medium- and high-grade composites either were close to or over 40% manganese, showing the amenability of the mineralisation to upgrade using simple density-based methods.”
The test work examined three manganese oxide composites collected from diamond drilling in November 2024, which comprised 22 holes.
The composites were screened at 8mm to produce fine and coarse fractions, which were then subjected to HLS at a liquid-specific gravity of 2.8 grams per cubic centimetre.
More than 70% of the manganese grade and recoveries were produced from fractions over 8mm.
Black Canyon says the return of grade and recoveries above the 8mm mark is a positive sign for the company to produce a lump-size product.
The lower-grade manganese oxide composite achieved lower overall recovery at around 47%, reflecting more disseminated and fracture fill related remobilised manganese.
Black Canyon will conduct further test work to examine a finer crush for potentially increasing the recovery of the lower-grade mineralisation style.
Additional HLS test work will examine blended feeds combining low-, medium- and high-grade manganese composites in ratios reflecting the current geometallurgical understanding of the discovery. At least two larger-scale blends will be formulated for dense media separation and assay analysis.
A reverse circulation drill rig has been mobilised to site to conduct a 15,000m infill and expansion drilling program.
The rig will initially infill the 3km strike of known mineralisation before drilling extensions to the north and east.
Black Canyon is a manganese exploration and development company operating in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
Write to Maddison Elliott at Mining.com.au
Images: Black Canyon
