Jan 18 2013
Huakan International Mining Inc. (the "Company") is pleased to report results of a preliminary metallurgical testing program undertaken on bulk samples obtained from the Company's J&L Project Main Zone deposit. The results provide further support to forward a process flowsheet to generate lead and zinc flotation concentrates, and produce gold/silver Dore, with additional precious metal credits provided from the lead concentrate. The program follows a similar process concept, with some modifications for the Company's Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA") (see NR 12-04).
Metallurgical testwork that has been completed to date on the Main Zone bulk sample includes; comminution, heavy media separation, and flotation, as well as pressure oxidation and bioleach testing of the precious metal bearing arsenopyrite/pyrite flotation concentrate. This testwork culminated in performing locked cycle flotation testing on a master composite sample grading 6.9 g/t Au, 58 g/t Ag, 2.4% Pb, and 3.9% Zn. Differential flotation was used to produce separate lead, zinc and arsenopyrite/pyrite concentrates. The locked cycle results show that the average lead concentrate graded 59% Pb, 40.7 g/t Au, and 699 g/t Ag, recovering 63% of the lead. The zinc concentrate assayed 61% Zn, accounting for 62% of the contained zinc. Further optimization testwork to reduce concentrate grade in order to improve base metal recovery will be performed. The arsenopyrite/pyrite concentrate that was produced was subjected separately to both pressure oxidation leaching (POX) and bioleaching pre-treatment methods prior to cyanidation. The resulting cyanidation of the POX product gave up to 97% gold recovery. Silver recovery of 93% was obtained following lime boil of the POX residue. As an alternative cyanide pretreatment method, bioleaching resulted in 89% gold recovery and 97% silver recovery. After accounting for heavy media, flotation and POX leaching losses, including the assumption of no precious metal payables for the zinc concentrate, the overall recoveries of the principal metal credits were calculated at 92% for gold and 90% for silver.
In addition, the Company has recently commenced a metallurgical testwork program on drill core samples from the J&L Yellowjacket Zone. The Yellowjacket testwork will primarily be comprised of flotation studies. Leaching of the Yellowjacket concentrates is not envisioned to be required.
The majority of the testwork is being conducted by Inspectorate Exploration and Mining Services Ltd., in Richmond, British Columbia, under the supervision of the Company's independent metallurgical consultant, Frank Wright, P.Eng. Metallurgical testing is planned to be continued with the advancement of the project development.
About the J&L Project
Since 2010, the Company has focused on advancing its 100% owned J&L precious and polymetallic (gold, silver, lead, zinc) advanced-stage exploration project, located near Revelstoke, British Columbia. The Company completed a positive PEA on the J&L Main Zone in April 2012, and recently updated the resource estimate for the J&L project.
Source: http://www.huakanmining.com/