Nevada King Gold Corp. (TSXV: NKG) (OTCQX: NKGFF) initiated the first phase of metallurgical testing on bulk samples taken from its diamond core drilling campaign at its Atlanta Gold Mine Project in 2022 today.
The company announced positive results from its cyanide solubility testing program in July of 2022. Gold cyanide demonstrated a weighted average of 86.7 per cent across 986 samples indicating that moving ahead with the process would be worthwhile. Additionally, Nevada King sampled widely with over half originating outside the historical Atlanta Mine open pit.
“As the project continues to advance, we have now acquired enough representative material to initiate a proper metallurgical characterization study which will allow the company to better understand the system and begin to design flow sheet options to treat the various material types,” said Gary Simmons, consulting metallurgist to Nevada King.
The cyanide solubility test work from last year demonstrated mineralization at Atlanta, and it’s now being drilled in oxide material. Oxides are a type of gold ore containing high concentrations of other minerals like iron and copper. The output from oxide gold are often used to make jewellery.
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Company extractions processes use small mill for gold and silver
Atlanta Cyanide Solubility Table. Image via Nevada King.
Previously, the Atlanta mine extracted and processed silica breccia (SBX) cores from the East Atlanta Fault, recovering 81.5 per cent of the gold and 42.7 per cent of the silver using a small mill and a Merrill Crowe pregnant solution recovery flowsheet.
The Merrill Crowe process technique separates gold from the solution obtained by the cyanide leaching of gold ores.
It’s an improvement over an earlier process, where a vacuum removes air from the solution and zinc dust is added. The dust binds with the gold and forms a precipitate. After which, the company filters out the solution and collects it and recycles the remaining solution into the process.
Nevada King developed its phase 1 metallurgical scope of work to explore the response of these mineralized zones to a number of processing options.
Presently, Nevada King intends to test selected material in the start of Q2 2023 with the help of mining engineering firm, Kappes, Cassiday and Associates in Reno, Nevada.
The company expects results by Q4, 2023.
The work presently underway includes geo-metallurgical characterization using a series of analytical techniques including gold and silver cyanide solubility analysis, carbon and sulphur species analysis, four acid inductively coupled plasma (ICP) analysis.
Gold and silver cyanide solubility analysis is used to determine the amount of gold and silver that can be dissolved in a cyanide solution. Its used to determine the optimal conditions for extracting gold and silver from ore.
Additionally, carbon and sulphur species analysis is used to identify and quantify what forms of carbon and sulphur are present in a sample. It determines the composition of a sample and its reactivity. Finally, four acid ICP analysis is used to measure the concentrations of various elements in a sample.
Nevada King starts geo-metallurgical characterization process
Stage 1 Cyanide Solubility Testing. Image via Nevada Gold.
Nevada King will also start the geo-metallurgical characterization process using a series of analytical techniques including gold and silver cyanide analysis, carbon and sulphur species analysis, four acid ICP analysis, as well as whole rock analysis and quantitative X-ray diffraction (QXRD) for clays.
Mining companies use whole rock analysis to determine the composition of a rock sample. It involves measuring the concentration of various elements in a sample, like major and minor elements, trace elements and rare earths. Additionally, QXRD is a type of spectroscopy used to measure the crystalline structure of a sample.
Other work includes conventional crush and column leach testing on all mineralization and lithology types. This testing involves crushing the ore to a specific size, then leaching it with a cyanide solution in a column.
Finally, Nevada King uses a high pressure grinding roll system to crush the ore to a specific size. Afterwards, metallurgists leach it with a cyanide solution in a column.
The Atlanta Gold Mine Project is 264 kilometres northeast of Las Vegas, Nevada in the Battle Mountain trend.
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NevGold Corp. (TSXV:NAU)(OTCQX:NAUFF)(Frankfurt:5E50) is another Canadian gold company with operations in Nevada. Last November, NevGold’s drill program at Resurrection Ridge in Nevada intercepted more oxide gold on its last assay and expanded its mineralized reach by over 100 meters.
NevGold is presently trading at $0.375 on the TSX Venture Exchange.
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