Maronan Metals hails positive test results

Maronan Metals has announced positive results from early-stage metallurgical research on pyroxene-hosted lead-silver and mixed copper sulphide ores from its Maronan project. Managing director Richard Carlton said the work pointed to processing and mining advantages that were expected to translate into very industry competitive capital and operating costs at Maronan. Managing director Richard Carlton. “This latest metallurgical test work highlights the high-value proposition of the Maronan ores and, combined with historic studies on the carbonate-hosted lead-sulphide ore-type, provides key data for future optimisation test work," Mr Carlton said. It follows the company's release last month of an updated resource estimate for the North-West Queensland project that underscored the early development potential of a shallow, silver-rich zone. Covering 38.35sq km, the Maronan project is located about 60km south-east of Cloncurry and 156km from Mount Isa. Maronan lead-silver mineralisation can be simply classified as carbonate-hosted and pyroxene hosted ore-types for metallurgical test work. Related: Updated Maronan resource ‘bodes well’ for mining Metallurgical test work by Red Metal in 2015 on soft carbonate-hosted ores from the site showed that high recoveries of lead (92-96 per cent) and silver (91-94 per cent) could be easily achieved on coarsely ground (212 micron) ore. Maronan Metals recently completed metallurgical research that focused on the previously untested pyroxene-hosted lead-silver mineralisation. That test work recovered silver with lead sulphide mineralisation which floats well under simple and readily available reagent regimes. Maronan found recoveries of 95 per cent for lead and 84 per cent for silver could be achieved at a medium-fine grind size. Assays on the lead sulphide mineral concentrates returned high silver grades - up to 1485g/t at 51 per cent lead. Preliminary flotation test work on mixed mineral, copper sulphide ore types (primary and transitional) from Maronan returned recoveries of 85-90 per cent copper. Assays on the copper sulphide mineral concentrates returned grades of 25-27 per cent copper, 1114 g/t gold, with highly variable silver contents of 31-515 g/t. Maronan said optimisation of the flotation reagent regimes plus gravity concentration was expected to improve all metal recoveries. "Importantly, early copper metallurgical results show a saleable product can be concentrated from the shallower, mixed mineral ore types – making these nearer to surface copper resources available for possible early development," it stated in an update to the ASX. Maronan Metals listed on the ASX in 2022 as a spin out company launched by Red Metal to focus on the Maranon project. Maronan contains JORC 2012 compliant inferred and indicated resources of: 32.1Mt at 6.1 per cent lead with 107 g/t silver (using >3 per cent lead cut-off grade); including 2.1Mt at 5.3 per cent lead with 155 g/t silver (using >3 per cent lead cut-off grade) indicated resource, 32.5Mt at 0.84 per cent copper with 0.61 g/t gold and 7 g/t silver (using >0.4 per cent copper cut-off grade), 1.8Mt at 1.24 g/t gold (using >1.0 g/t gold cut-off grade). You may also like: https://industryqld.com.au/follow-up-tests-back-sybella-rare-earth-leach-potential

Maronan Metals hails positive test results

Industry Queensland

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