Neometals (ASX:NMT) has begun a second phase of metallurgical testwork at Precious Metals Recovery’s (PMR) pilot plant in Colorado, USA.
The testwork, expected to be completed this month, will be undertaken on preferred feedstock, reagent regime, and recovery techniques to confirm the repeatability of gold and palladium recovery.
Neometals, which has a market capitalisation of $74.73 million, says the phase two results — expected to be returned in July — will be used to prepare an operating and financial model to consider the investment case for Neometals proposed acquisition of PMR.
The company holds an option to acquire an 80% interest of PMR, which owns and operates the pilot plant. The pilot plant demonstrates its proprietary hydrometallurgical process to selectively recover precious metals from certain industrial waste streams.
To date, Neometals has made no decision to proceed with the PMR option, which expires on 31 August 2024, and its decision to exercise the option or not remains subject to the outcome of ongoing due diligence on PMR.
Neometals completed the first phase pilot-scale metallurgical testwork program, which took six weeks, to selectively recover precious metals from purchased third-party waste streams yielded encouraging results.
The testwork revealed there was variability of recovered metal from different feedstocks that were processed under various chemical regimes and metal recovery techniques.
Some campaigns showed positive metal recovery for gold and palladium, while some failed to recover either metal. This testwork allowed Neometals to identify the best reagent regime and feedstock that will be tested in the current testwork.
During March and April, the company observed the testing of 4.28 tonnes of feedstocks purchased from two third-party waste management companies.
The program comprised 24 individual batches of either 120kg or 245kg of feed material. Two batches were discarded due to operational issues, while 22 proceeded through the entire process.
As a result, 11 batches processed to recover palladium, nine recovered gold, and two recovered both gold and palladium sequentially.
Neometals is a sustainable process technology developer focused on reducing the environmental burden of traditional mining in the global transition to a circular economy.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: Neometals
