Pivotal Metals (ASX:PVT) has received assays from three diamond drillholes, while also kicking off metallurgical testwork at its Horden Lake Project in Quèbec, Canada.
The testwork, which will be conducted by Blue Coast Research, aims to produce a final copper and nickel concentrate through conventional sulphide flotation, as well as build on historical testwork results.
Pivotal, which has a market capitalisation of $14.78 million, says an approximately 300kg sample has been delivered to Blue Coast, with sample preparation and testwork to begin immediately.
Variability samples have been collected from drilling spreading across the central and south zones of the deposit to compile two master composites representing the two main lithologies; gabbro and metasediments.
Previous testwork has shown that saleable grades of copper concentrates can be made at recoveries ranging from 85-96% of the copper in feed. Pivotal adds high nickel recoveries were also shown, and it was noted that concentrates produced contained quantities of silver, gold, and platinum group elements.
Managing Director Ivan Fairhall says the testwork program will build on previous campaigns and is an important milestone for the company.
“This program will allow us to optimise a flow sheet to deliver maximum metal recoveries into concentrates which yield the highest possible payability — not only for copper, but also for nickel, platinum group elements, precious metals, and cobalt which we are demonstrating through drilling to exist across the entire deposit,” Fairhall says.
“The reported drillholes show continuity of mineralisation in the shallow open pit area, selected to ensure we collected a spatially representative sample for the testwork.”
Drilling at Horden Lake comprised 34 holes for 7,097m of diamond drilling aimed to infill missing by-product multi-element assay information, target resource expansion potential, and collect a distribution of metallurgical sample for a complete testwork program.
The latest results include 13.7m @ 0.79% copper-equivalent from 137m; 12.2m @ 0.7% copper-equivalent from 156m, including 2.3m @ 2.22% copper-equivalent.
More than half of the metres and holes drilled in this year’s program remain pending, including multiple step out and downhole electromagnetic results across zones of open mineralisation.
Horden Lake is a copper dominant project which lies 131km north-northwest of Matagami in Canada.
Pivotal Metals is an explorer and developer focused on its battery minerals exploration portfolio in Canada.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: Pivotal Metals
