Investigator Resources (ASX:IVR) is aiming to determine the opportunity to improve its Paris Silver Project’s economics through the recovery of lead, amid finishing a comprehensive metallurgical testwork program.
The $58.60 million market capitalisation company says there is further work to be conducted to evaluate the distribution of lead zones within Paris’s mineral resource, as well as to define the opportunity for inclusion of a lead recovery circuit in the project’s Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS).
Investigator is currently tackling the DFS, upon receiving the testwork’s ‘encouraging’ results supporting a baseline for production of a blended leach concentration.
Managing Director Andrew Mcllwain says: “A critical component of the Paris DFS, results from the lead recovery test work undertaken at ALS’s Burnie laboratory will now enable our technical team to determine the opportunity to improve the project’s economics through the recovery of lead.”
The company notes one aspect of the DFS is to evaluate the potential to maximise recovery of lead to allow inclusion in a revised optimised flowsheet for the Paris project.
Investigator reports lead floatation test work confirmed grades of up to 39% lead from sulphide rich zones.
Mcllwain says previous work carried out had identified that lead recovery from the project’s resource was ‘challenging’ given the numerous forms in which lead appears.
“With the comprehensive work undertaken over the last few years we have a better understanding of, and the ability to determine the distribution of the numerous mineral occurrences of lead, enabling us to model and test recoveries.
There is a real opportunity that revenue from lead recovery will add to the project’s economics.”
Investigators goal of the test work program was to provide inputs of lead recovery and target concentrate grade that could be included in refinements of the mineral process flowsheet and subsequent mine optimisation and financial modelling of the project.
Based on the outcomes of the lead recovery optimisation test work, additional modelling of data within the mineral resource will be conducted to determine what proportion of material could be in future mine plans for processing in a lead recovery circuit.
Investigator Resources is a metals explorer focused on silver-lead, copper-gold, and other metals discoveries.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: Investigator Resources
