Breakthrough metallurgical results boost Warriedar’s (ASX:WA8) Ricciardo gold potential
October 28, 2024Warriedar Resources (ASX:WA8) has unveiled promising metallurgical test results from its flagship Ricciardo deposit, part of the Golden Range Project in Western Australia’s Murchison region.
The initial metallurgical tests on primary mineralisation suggest a clear path to efficient gold recovery, paving the way for further project advancements.
Key Highlights
- High Recoveries: Preliminary tests achieved gold recoveries of up to 96% via a single-stage flotation and cyanidation process. This robust performance indicates a potential for direct export of primary gold concentrate or secondary on-site processing.
- Pathway to Production: Secondary processing options yielded an impressive 95% recovery of gold from concentrate through bacterial oxidation, resulting in a net recovery of 88%.
- Ongoing Studies: Additional research will focus on refining flotation and testing other extraction methods across the broader Golden Range Project.
Warriedar Resources Managing Director, Amanda Buckingham, expressed optimism: “These results deliver strong validation of Warriedar’s decision to focus its exploration activities on the large-scale Ricciardo deposit and broader ‘Golden Corridor’.”
This sentiment underscores the company’s strategic alignment with high-recovery pathways.
A Modern Take on Historical Mining
Spanning approximately 2.3 kilometres in strike length, the Ricciardo deposit is emerging as a substantial gold resource, previously limited by a history of shallow drilling that rarely ventured below 100 metres.
Currently, the deposit’s Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) stands at 8.7 million tonnes at a grade of 1.7 grams per tonne of gold, equating to 476,000 ounces.
Warriedar’s recent exploration efforts have not only confirmed extensions of high-grade mineralisation but also suggest that the earlier identified resource may be just the beginning, potentially part of a much more extensive system.
Historically, exploration efforts were largely concentrated on the more accessible oxide zones, leaving the deeper transition and primary sulphide layers significantly underexplored—a gap that Warriedar is now poised to fill, particularly in light of recent successes in primary sulphide testing, presenting a renewed opportunity to uncover and unlock the deposit’s full potential.
The Technical Journey
Initial metallurgical tests focused predominantly on flotation techniques, where a single-stage “rougher” flotation yielded promising results, achieving a 92% concentration recovery rate, while further cyanidation of the flotation tails added another 4% to the total recovery.
subsequent tests employing closed-circuit flotation, combined with innovative bacterial oxidation processes, not only upheld robust recovery figures but also culminated in an impressive overall net efficiency of 88%, highlighting the effectiveness of these advanced methodologies in maximising gold extraction..
These results were a leap forward from traditional extraction methods, the innovative bacterial oxidation approach, similar to those employed at established operations like Fosterville in Victoria, effectively liberates gold from fine-grained sulphides, enhancing recovery potential.
Buckingham added, “Our primary focus remains our pursuit of the abundant opportunities to continue to grow the resource base within the Golden Corridor.”
Future Prospects
Warriedar is not resting on its laurels, an upcoming round of studies will delve deeper into flotation optimisation, while also exploring alternative processing routes for gold extraction.
These developments are expected to support the next MRE update, scheduled for late November 2024, reinforcing the Ricciardo deposit’s standing within Western Australia’s competitive gold landscape.
The technical success at Ricciardo is set against a broader ambition to enhance resource scale along the Golden Corridor—a region known for its mineralisation potential.
This strategy could yield substantial long-term returns, as Warriedar positions itself as a key player in the Australian gold sector.
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