Southern Cross Gold (ASX:SX2) will provide an update on metallurgical development at its Sunday Creek Project in Victoria, and its economic potential in a presentation to be delivered at the Digger & Dealers Mining Forum later today.
A stage two testwork program has shown selective flotation processing that produces a high-grade, low-arsenic antimony-gold concentrate from the upper antimony rich zones of the deposit, alongside “excellent” recovery of native gold.
The overall gold recovery ranged between 92.3% to 95.6% across three product streams. The gravity gold concentrate totalled 37.3-51.4% recovered gold, while the antimony-gold concentrate totalled 28.8-36.5% recovered gold.
Meanwhile, sulphide concentrate totalled 15.5-18% recovered gold.
Southern Cross, which has a market capitalisation of $1.4 billion, says the results show scope for further optimisation through additional cleaning stages to remove non-sulphide gangue, multi-stage cleaning optimisation, locked-cycle testing for overall recovery confirmation, and process recycling optimisation.
Future testing will focus on understanding the effect of grind size on recoveries, understanding gold-rich and lower antimony grades within deeper mineralisation, as well as creating geometallurgical models across deposit zones.
CEO Michael Hudson says the metallurgical development de-risks Sunday Creek and positions the company to potentially deliver multiple high-value products to market.
“The combination of excellent overall native gold recovery with the ability to produce premium antimony concentrates validates our strategy and enhances the project’s economic potential,” Hudson says.
The Sunday Creek Project, located 60km north of Melbourne, covers 16,900 hectares of granted exploration tenements.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: Southern Cross Gold
