ECR Minerals reports ‘highly encouraging’ results from an enhanced gold recovery process for its Blue Mountain project, 95km south-west of Gladstone.

Gekko Systems carried out single-stage gravity recoverable gold (GRG) test work on ore samples collected from the project, demonstrating a recovery rate of 91.7 per cent gold.

This followed a trenching and sampling program ECR carried out at Blue Mountain in July, with sluice box concentrate results including 192.15 g/t gold and 97.40 g/t gold.

The findings suggest that the ore located at the Blue Mountain project is suitable for gravity concentration using a batch centrifugal concentrator.

ECR managing director Mike Whitlow said while further analysis was required, the concentrations of gold being found at or around surface level fully validated examining the viability of installing a production plant at the site. 

“Significantly, the results so far have provided ample proof that potentially commercial opportunities still exist in some of the historical goldfields through the application of modern technology,” he said.

“Certainly at Blue Mountain, the indications are that, based on Gekko’s report, we can potentially recover materially higher quantities of gold than those levels achieved by the first prospectors.

“The board and ECR’s technical team will now further evaluate these results and determine the next steps for the Blue Mountain project.”

The full report provided by Gekko has been published on the ECR Minerals website.

The average assayed testwork head grade was 89.95 g/t gold. The average calculated head grade was 91.57 g/t gold.

The single-stage GRG test recovered 91.7 per cent of the gold into 0.40 per cent of the mass.

The concentrate grade was 22,043.25 g/t gold (2.2 per cent gold).

Sighter leach testwork (1000 ppm NaCN) on the single-stage GRG tail resulted in a gold recovery of 87.6 per cent after 24 hours.

“Following a review of the results, the testwork indicates that a gravity recovery circuit and conventional cyanidation is a viable treatment option as a way of recovering the gold from Blue Mountain ore after further testwork and economic evaluation,” an executive summary stated.

ECR Minerals purchased the tenement from Bluekebble last year.

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