New leach tests show potential for high cu recoveries at Wetar copper project
Saturday, January 20 2007 - 02:46 AM WIB
The sample is still leaching strongly as the test continues. A parallel test on Lerokis material shows only 30% copper recovery, said the company.
Finders is the operator and 72 percent owner of Wetar copper and gold project in Maluku, where both Kali Kuning and Lerokis prospects are located.
The company also said that separate amenability tests using proprietary BioHeapTM bacteria have yielded 82% copper recovery for Kali Kuning and 57% for Lerokis, indicating that these bacteria can successfully treat otherwise refractory Lerokis material.
The company also added that three twin-holes at Kali Kuning, drilled to assess suspected selective copper losses in previous drilling, have yielded copper grade increases of 1%, 19% and 70% in corresponding intervals.
The Wetar Copper Project is currently in the feasibility stage after the completion of a Scoping Study in June 2006. The feasibility study is in two stages, the first of which is designed to evaluate and select the most optimum processing option.
Finders has previously reported copper recoveries of around 86% using the Albion and HydroCopper hydrometallurgical techniques after production of a rougher concentrate.
Chris Farmer, Managing Director, said:"The high copper recoveries from the leach test work are highly promising and impressive for this stage of the test program and may lead towards a major breakthrough for the Wetar Copper project.
An onsite heap leach process route offers potential to substantially reduce capital and operating costs for comparable levels of copper production and the possibility of shortened timelines to production.
In view of these results Finders will undertake a fundamental review of the relative economics between the concentrate/off-site Albion process route and the new option of heap leaching and on-site copper cathode production by SXEW." (alex)