Reunion Gold Corporation (TSX VENTURE:RGD) ("Reunion" or the
"Company") is pleased to announce results from initial
metallurgical testwork for its 100% held Matthews Ridge Manganese
Project in the North West District of Guyana, South America.
Highlights
-- Initial metallurgical testing of banded manganese ore from Matthews
Ridge indicates that commercial product could be produced from run of
mine material.
-- The testwork was focussed on the banded manganese ores, which represent
the most difficult ore type to treat.
-- The objective of this initial program was to test the amenability of the
ores to upgrading by modern gravity separation methods.
-- Results from the jigging tests indicate that the banded manganese ores
could be upgraded to produce a saleable product grading more than 40% Mn
at acceptable yields and with low deleterious elements.
A program of metallurgical testing of the Matthews Ridge
manganese ores was initiated earlier this year at the laboratories
of Bateman Engineering in South Africa. The ore of interest for
this initial test program was the banded manganese mineralisation,
a mineralisation encountered in surface trenches. A total of 700 kg
each of samples labeled "low" and "high" grade ore from Matthews
Ridge was sent for testing.
The "high" grade sample consisted of a blend of normal banded
manganese designed to be at a grade of approximately 10-12% Mn that
resembles the average grade of the banded beds encountered in the
trenching at Matthews Ridge. The term "high" grade refers to the
higher of the two samples tested, and is not representative of the
high grade massive manganese at Matthews Ridge. The objective of
this testwork was to test the amenability of a normal run of mine
banded ore to gravity separation techniques, and quantify the level
of deleterious elements.
The "low" grade sample was below "cut off" grade banded
manganese ore (less than 4% Mn). The objective of testing this
material was to confirm that the sub economic ore could not be
upgraded to produce a commercial product.
Test results indicate that the"high" grade banded manganese ores
could be upgraded to produce a saleable product grading more than
40% Mn at acceptable yields and with low deleterious elements as
below:
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Mn product - %Mn Mass yield - % % Fe %(Si+Al) % P
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34.5 32.7 4.0 32.5 0.114
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40.7 13.1 3.4 24.6 0.128
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43.0 9.8 3.1 21.6 0.133
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Bateman Engineering Projects: Special Projects concluded that
the high grade ore supplied for testing is upgradeable by means of
gravity methods to product grades at acceptable yields for all size
fractions over 3 mm, whereas the -3 mm high grade material and all
of the low grade material is upgradeable, but due to the low head
grades and recoveries, it would probably not be economically viable
to do so. The conclusions are limited to the ore supplied, and can
be extended only to ore of similar characteristics.
Test objectives
The objective of this initial program was to test the
amenability of the ores to upgrading by modern gravity separation
methods (jigs, HMS/DMS techniques). This program will provide
information and data for process design, process optimisation and
product identification.Heavy Liquids Separation testing was also
conducted on the fines fractions.
Description of manganese samples
Manganese mineralisation at the Matthews Ridge project has been
classified in four distinct categories:
-- massive manganese which come in large high grade manganese bands that
can be crushed, washed and screened to produce acceptable concentrate
grades;
-- detrital or residual manganese representing discrete manganese pebbles
produced from weathering and enrichment - these ores can be washed and
screened to produce concentrate;
-- banded manganese representing interlayered bands of manganese and
phyllites requiring crushing, washing, screening and further
concentration; and
-- manganese tailings from the previous operations' wash plant consisting
of minus 6mm material in the tailings basin - this material is
completely deslimed and will require further treatment to produce an
acceptable concentrate.
Samples sent for testwork
The samples selected and sent for testwork was the banded
manganese encountered in the initial trenching programs. The
samples were sent in unscreened form (-20 +0 mm), and each sample
was screened separately to extract the -20 +10 (coarse) and -10 +3
mm (medium) fractions. Approximately 50 kg from each of the high
and low grade bulk samples were extracted for size analysis, while
the -3 mm fraction from each grade was sub-sampled for Heavy
Liquids Separation (HLS) analysis.
Testwork performed
Ore samples were tested in the Bateman J-TUBE batch jig with the
purpose of determining the ability to jig the ore. The Bateman
J-TUBE is designed to be hydraulically similar to large scale
commercial under-bed pulsed APIC jigs.
Timed batch test were undertaken on the samples, with layers
extracted for density analysis and assay. Test data were fitted
using the ASTRAD (Advanced Stratification Transport Rate and
Diffusion) model to extract rate and quality of separation of the
ore, and to provide a back-calculated approximation of the feed
washability (size and density distribution of the ore)
analysis.
Tests are performed for different residence times for each of
the size fractions. A test campaign consists of three timed batch
test, typically 1 minute, 5 minutes and 20 minutes. The longest
duration test is used to determine the ultimate state of separation
of the material, since the duration is long enough for the
separation and re-mixing forces to reach a state of equilibrium.
The two shorter duration tests produce states of incomplete
separation, and this data is used in the determination of the rate
and at which separation occurs, as well as the quality of
separation. After each timed test, the material is extracted in
layers from the top to the bottom of the bed by means of vacuum
extraction. Each layer is weighed in water, oven-dried and then
weighed in air in order to determine the average layer particle
density. Representative samples from the layers are sent for
chemical analysis.
Test results
For the sample labelled "high grade" a saleable product could
potentially be produced as below:
-- For a grade of 40.6% Mnconcentrate, the yield would be approximately
13.1%, with a combined grade for silica and alumina at about 24.6% and
+/-3.4% Fe with phosphorous (P) at 0.128%.
-- For a grade of 43% Mnconcentrate, the yield is 9.8%, with the grades for
combined alumina + silica +/-21.6% and for Fe +/-3.1% with
phosphorous(P) at 0.133%
The detailed results are provided below. Feed rates of up to 40
tph / m width will give adequate residence time in a 3 m long jig
for separation.
"High" Grade Test - Jigging Results
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yield From HG Resource %Mn %Fe %(Al+Si) %P
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
0.33% 50.20% 2.03% 13.16% 0.148%
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3.27% 49.66% 2.11% 13.77% 0.147%
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6.53% 46.36% 2.63% 17.59% 0.140%
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9.80% 43.04% 3.10% 21.61% 0.133%
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13.07% 40.66% 3.40% 24.57% 0.128%
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16.34% 39.03% 3.60% 26.65% 0.125%
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
19.60% 37.85% 3.73% 28.16% 0.122%
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
22.87% 36.93% 3.83% 29.35% 0.120%
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
26.14% 36.16% 3.90% 30.37% 0.118%
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
29.41% 35.41% 3.95% 31.39% 0.116%
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32.67% 34.59% 4.00% 32.53% 0.114%
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For the "low" grade feed medium (-10+3mm) fraction, it is
unlikely to upgrade to obtain a saleable concentrate product. This
appears to be due to the relatively low feed grade - 2.9%Mn.
Heavy Liquid Analysis testing of the -3mm samples from both the
"low" grade and "high" grade fractions gave product streams that
contained gangue with low mass yields and low recoveries.
Comment
Commenting on these initial results, Mr. James Crombie,
President and Chief Executive Officer of Reunion, says "We are
pleased with these initial results. We wanted to test the most
difficult ore type first and are satisfied we can treat the banded
manganese as indicated here. We are now confident about the
potential of producing high grade manganese concentrates from the
blend of ores that Matthew's Ridge has to offer. Further jig
testwork will be carried out in coming months on the various ore
types to refine the process parameters. In addition, we will seek
to have a pilot plant at our site to speed up this process".
Additional work
In addition a total of 22 samples of various ore types from
Matthews Ridge have been sent to SGS Lakefield in Canada for ore
characterisation analysis and QEMSCAN (Quantitative Evaluation of
Materials by Scanning Electron Microscopy), a technology that can
measure mineralogical variability based on chemistry at the
micrometer scale. Again this will provide data for process design,
optimisation and product identification. This testwork is currently
underway but no results have been received to date.
Qualified Person
Bateman Engineering Projects: Special Projects,General Manager,
Henk van Tonder, is a qualified person under Engineering Council of
South Africa (ECSA), Professional Engineer (Pr. Eng.), reviewed and
approved the content of the news release regarding the
metallurgical testwork. Mr. van Tonder is a qualified person under
National Instrument 43-101.
Bateman Engineering Projects: Special Projects, a world leader
in advanced process models for jig design, sizing and scaling,
based on batch test work, conducted the testing for Matthews Ridge
ores at their Laboratories in Boksburg, South Africa under the
supervision of Mr. Geoff Mann, Project Manager. The report is based
on their consultant, Mr. Andrew Jonker's ASTRAD model results. The
conclusions are limited to the ore supplied, and can be extended
only to ore of similar characteristics.
Bateman Engineering Projects: Special Projects have an
impressive reference list of over 45 Apic jig installations in most
major mineral producing regions.
About the Company
The Company is a mineral exploration company focused on the
acquisition, exploration and development of mineral properties in
the Guyana Shield of South America. The Company,through its 100%
indirectly owned subsidiary Reunion Manganese Inc.,has assembled a
large, strategic land position to conduct exploration and
development activities for manganese in the North West District of
Guyana. The Company also has the right to acquire a 100% interest
in a gold exploration project located in the Lely Mountain area in
Eastern Suriname.
Manganese is the fourth largest metal consumed in the world,
behind iron, aluminum and copper. It is a key component in steel
and iron production with no viable substitute, and in short
supply.
Additional information about the Company is available on SEDAR
at www.sedar.com and at www.reuniongold.com.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking information.
Although the Company believes in light of the experience of its
officers and directors, current conditions and expected future
developments and other factors that have been considered
appropriate that the expectations reflected in this forward-looking
information are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on
them because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove
to be correct. The reader is cautioned that the potential
recoverability and grade are conceptual in nature; it is uncertain
if further exploration will result in the exploration project being
delineated as a mineral resource and there is no guarantee that
these resources, if delineated, will be economic or sufficient to
support a commercial mining operation. Until a feasibility study
has been completed, there is no certainty that the commercial
production will be initiated.
Forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks,
uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause actual
results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in
such forward-looking information. The forward-looking statements
contained in this press release are made as of the date hereof and
the Company undertakes no obligations to update publicly or revise
any forward-looking statements or information, whether as a result
of new information, future events or otherwise, unless so required
by applicable securities laws.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services
Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX
Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or
accuracy of this press release.
Contacts: James Crombie President and Chief Executive Officer
450.677.2585 450.677.2601
(FAX)info@reuniongold.comwww.reuniongold.com
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