Sep 26 2017
Ireland Inc. provided an update on the technical program of its ongoing precious metals extraction process at the Columbus Project, located in Esmeralda County, Nevada.
Technical Program and Extraction Update
- Ongoing laboratory extraction optimization work has successfully eliminated all but the last coating layer entombing the Gold and Palladium particles.
- Testing over past eight weeks to remove the last coating has been successful in some instances and has shown some very positive test results, but the success is inconsistent.
- Work continues to get the consistency required in order to move forward with finalizing the extraction process.
- Some of the recent tests have extracted the material from its coating to a point where it can be analyzed by standard fire assay.
- This is significant because fire assay is the industry standard analytical methodology - and the ability to demonstrate precious metals extraction via fire assay reduces the metallurgical risk for extraction.
- Currently in final optimization lab tests for Gold and Palladium extraction, which are expected to continue for up to four weeks.
- After which, work will move to the pilot plant in order to:
- Run larger volumes,
- Prove scalability, and
- Demonstrate extractions rates from materials taken from various areas of the basin.
Readers are cautioned that the materials sampled for the tests shown above are all from a single area within the Columbus Project site, and may not be indicative of results for the rest of the North Sand Zone or the Columbus Project as a whole. The Company believes that, because the project site is comprised of alluvial soil, mineralization deposits are wide spread throughout the Columbus Project site. Third party chain of custody protocols were not observed during current testing as Ireland personnel are assisting in sample collection and preparation. In addition, in the past, Ireland has encountered difficulties when attempting to translate extraction results achieved under laboratory conditions to the larger scale on-site pilot plant. Ireland believes that this risk is reduced because the current pilot plant was used in its most recent successful test work reported above
Source: http://irelandminerals.com/