Coda Minerals is buoyed by the recoveries achieved by metallurgical testwork completed at its Elizabeth Creek copper-cobalt project in South Australia.
The tests confirmed significant copper recoveries from the Windabout deposit using newly tested oxide collectors, even under more commercially realistic conditions.
The testwork builds on initial lab results announced in June this year, where recovery improvements were achieved under ideal conditions. This time, testing involved using saline site water and incorporating commercial processing techniques like de-sliming and multi-stage grinding.
Notably, recent testwork mirrored the success of initial tests.
“We have now successfully replicated those initial results under more realistic conditions using water sourced from Elizabeth Creek,” Coda chief executive officer Chris Stevens said.
“This shows that the improvements we have seen are robust and more directly applicable to project conditions, not just in a lab.”
Among the most significant results was a two-stage grind and float process that improved recovery by approximately 11.6% per cent compared to the baseline.
This improvement shows there is potential for more efficient processing at Windabout, which is one of the three main deposits at Elizabeth Creek.
Coda is now moving forward with testing to convert rougher concentrate to final concentrate and plans to apply the same techniques to the MG14 and Emmie Bluff deposits.
“Once completed, we anticipate that this work will form the core of a series of improvements which we intend to present to the market in the second half of this year in the form of a comprehensive review of the project’s Scoping Study and associated economics,” Stevens said.
These results mark a critical step in advancing Elizabeth Creek’s development and enhancing its commercial viability, setting the stage for future updates on the project’s economic outlook.
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