Pivotal Metals (ASX:PVT) has delivered an increase of copper grade by 2.1 times in a recent large-scale ore sorting trial at the Horden Lake Project in Québec, Canada.
The ore sorting program indicated an increase in copper and copper equivalent grade through the rejection of 68% of the mass and 29% copper recovery.
Pivotal reported copper recovery to increase to 86% through a less selective sorting criteria, with a 1.5 times increase in feed grade through 44% mass rejection.
The company says it has the ability to increase its plant feed grade with a potential to lower processing and operating costs.
Managing Director Ivan Fairhall says large-scale X-Ray transmission (XRT) ore sorting indicated a “major step forward” for the project and demonstrates its developmental optionality.
“The company has seen interest in Horden Lake increase markedly in the current copper price environment and these excellent results reinforce the company’s position that Horden Lake is a rare and valuable copper-dominant deposit in a tier-one mining jurisdiction,” Fairhall says.
“These successful ore sorting results support our objective of developing a scalable copper project.
“In addition to the significant potential production cost benefits, a plant utilising ore sorting has major advantages in terms of capex, footprint, tailings and permitting.
“With XRT ore sorting already proven at commercial scale globally, these results give us strong confidence to incorporate ore sorting into future economic assessments and possible strengthened investment case for Horden Lake.”
Pivotal Metals is a mineral explorer and developer of critical mineral projects in Canada.
Write to Maddison Elliott at Mining.com.au
Images: Pivotal Metals
