Resources & Energy Group has completed drilling for metallurgical test work as it advances the Mount Mackenzie gold and silver project, 150km north-west of Rockhampton.

The bore‐core has been loaded onto pallets and dispatched to ALS Townsville.

Previous test work and interpretation highlighted a high amenability of the weathered mineralisation at Mount Mackenzie to standard gravity/CIL treatment, the company said.

Further core was required to complete work on the transitional and fresh zones.

A scoping study conducted in July 2020 pointed to an opportunity to transition the processing plant from leach‐only to a crushing, grinding and bulk sulphide flotation process.

The adoption of a flotation process to produce a polymetallic concentrate could unlock additional primary ore at Mount Mackenzie, which is currently not included in the optimised pit shell.

The latest drilling program was designed to:
– Recover cored intervals through the entire ore body for metallurgical testing.
– Investigate primary mineralisation below the current drilled extents.
– Infill current drilled intervals and upgrade the South West Slopes resource to the indicated class.

A 400m program targeted two zones of primary mineralisation.

The holes penetrated the full width of the mineralised zones, each about 150m in width. In both cases the ore zone was about 20‐25m thicker than modelled.

Resources & Energy Group said the initial metallurgical test work would be carried out by ALS. Following completion of this work JT Metallurgical Services will prepare a combination of master and variability composites for evaluation.

“As part of the program the effectiveness of gravity preconcentration, cyanide leaching, and flotation will be investigated,” the company said.