Singida Preliminary Metallurgical Study Results
SHANTAGOLD LIMITED
("Shanta" or the "Company")
SINGIDA PROJECT: PRELIMINARY METALLURGICAL STUDY RESULTS ANNOUNCEMENT
Shanta is pleased to announce that SGS South Africa (Pty) Ltd has
completed a preliminary general mineralogical and gold deportment
study for the Singida project in central Tanzania.
The tests suggest that overall recoveries by milling and CIL will be
better than 90%. Three of the prospects (Gold Tree, Jem and Corn
Patch West) containing predominantly coarse gold grains achieved
recoveries of 94.4%, 97.6% and 97.1% respectively, and two prospects
(Kaiser Chief and Gustav) containing significant proportions of fine
grained gold locked in sulphides achieved recoveries of 84.8% and
85.5% respectively, by direct cyanidation.
The studies were conducted on chips obtained from RC drilling
completed during 2007 from the Gold Tree, Jem, Kaiser Chief, Gustav
and Corn Patch West prospects. Gold speciation, gold particle size,
liberation/exposure characteristics and mineral association and
composition studies were complemented with gravity concentration and
cyanidation test work. An overall predicted metallurgical response
and possible effective and practical metallurgical routes have been
proposed.
The methodology included sample preparation and milling, assay, XRF
analysis, total sulphur and organic carbon and arsenic determination.
This was followed by grading analysis, heavy liquid separation,
gravity concentration and X-ray diffraction on subsamples, and
QEMSCAN Bulk Mineralogical Analysis to determine the mineralogical
composition of each sample and the gold occurrences. Cyanide leach
tests were conducted on subsamples of the original composites and on
gravity tails samples, occluded gold was determined by hot acid and
CIL dissolution and a split aliquot of the gravity tails of each
sample underwent diagnostic leach tests.
The following general observations and conclusions were reached from
this test work. The gold grain-distribution is noted as highly
variable, some samples containing relatively coarse gold and the gold
grades ranged between 4.2g/t and 13.45g/t and silver between more
than1g/t and 2.2g/t. The arsenic content is relatively high, up to
1.51%, confirming the presence of arsenopyrite.
Gravity separation using heavy liquid separation and Falcon
Concentration was used, and the two tests indicate the high
amenability of the ore to gravity concentration. Between 61% and 78%
of the gold reported to the HLS sinks. The Falcon Concentrator gold
upgrading compared fairly well with the HLS, except for the Gustav
and Kaiser Chief samples. The total gold recovery by gravity varies
between ~34% and 79%.
Direct cyanidation tests revealed that between ~84% and 97% of the
gold is recoverable by that method. Diagnostic leach tests of the
gravity tails recovered between 77% and 87% of the gold and carbon in
leach resulted in additional gold recovery of between 0.9% and 6.4%.
CIL process gold recoveries on gravity tails are expected to be
between 79% and 93%. Only two of the five samples contained
significant amounts of refractory gold and overall, gold recoveries
by milling and CIL are expected to be better than 90%.
These early metallurgical tests strongly suggest that the process
would consist of an upfront gravity circuit to recover the coarse
gold prior to cyanidation and that both process capital and operating
costs will be low.
In May 2009, Shanta announced an increased resource at Singida to
more than 1 million ounces in five prospects. Current work programmes
include trenching of near surface extensions to these known targets
including particularly the Gold Tree and Jem prospects. These
positive metallurgical results firmly establish the potential
economic importance of this project and, in line with the strategy to
advance the projects towards production, further more comprehensive
metallurgical test work and preliminary mining studies and resource
drilling are envisaged for later in the year when additional funding
has been secured.
For further information:
Shanta Gold Limited
http://www.shantagold.com
Walton Imrie
Mobile: +27 (0) 82 444 2851
David Scott
Mobile: + 255 (0) 784 366146
Fairfax I.S. PLC
Ewan Leggat / Laura Littley
+44 (0) 20 7598 5368
GLOSSARY
JORC - The Joint Ore Reserves Committee. The Australasian Code for
Reporting of Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves (the 'JORC Code' or
'the Code'), which sets out minimum standards, recommendations and
guidelines for Public Reporting of exploration results, mineral
resources and ore reserves in Australasia.
Measured Resource. An in-situ mineral resource calculated with a
high confidence level to which economic parameters have not been
applied. Also that part of a mineral resource where the data used
for inspection, sampling and measurement is of sufficient quality and
density such that the geological character, continuity, grade and
nature are sufficiently well understood to define the location and
characteristics of mineralisation with a high degree of confidence
Indicated Resource. An in-situ mineral resource calculated with a
moderate confidence level to which economic parameters have not been
applied.
Inferred Resource. An in-situ mineral resource calculated with a low
confidence level to which economic parameters cannot be applied.
QEMSCAN Bulk Mineralogical Analysis - QEMSCAN is an automated process
mineralogical instrument consisting of a base scanning electron
microscope, equipped with four light element energy dispersive X-ray
detectors, a micro-analyser and an electronic processing unit that
acquires and processes chemical, textural and liberation data. It
reveals textures in the deposit and exports this data to 3D imaging
software, performs automated trace mineral searches to identify
precious or rare minerals like gold in the material and can provide
liberation and grain size data.
XRF - X-ray Fluorescence is the emission of characteristic
"secondary" (or fluorescent) X-rays from a material that has been
excited by bombarding with high-energy X-rays or gamma rays and this
phenomenon is used for elemental and chemical analysis, whereby a
sample of some of the rock is analysed for its elemental composition,
determining what elements are present, and how much of each are
present.
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