Oct 6 2012
Crosshair Energy is pleased to announce the results of its 2012 metallurgy testing of mineralized samples from the Juniper Ridge uranium project in southern Wyoming. Total U3O8 extraction from 63 to 94 percent was achieved at a somewhat lower acid consumption than what had been recorded in the historic tests.
"These results are significant because the samples representing the average grade of the mineralized zone achieved an average 77 percent extraction," said Mark Ludwig, Crosshair President and Chief Executive Officer. "Following these very positive results, additional metallurgical analysis will be conducted to test potential uranium recovery in simulated heap leach conditions."
Eleven bottle roll tests were completed on five core composite samples representing the high grade (0.2920% and 0.0845% U3O8), average grade (0.0674% U3O8), and low grade (0.0435% and 0.0273% U3O8) mineralized zones from the Juniper Ridge property. The highest uranium extractions of 85 to 93 percent were obtained from the two highest grade composites. Six samples representing the average grade of the resource ranged from 68 to 84 percent with an average extraction of 77 percent. Three tests on the lowest-grade composite yielded uranium extractions ranging from 63% to 77%, the latter resulting from leaching parameters considered to be near-optimum.
Uranium extraction was also determined to be extremely rapid, with essentially all of it taking place during the first four hours. These results are generally consistent with the 89 to 92 percent uranium extractions obtained in 1978 by Hazen Research on finely ground samples from the Juniper Ridge deposit. The primary objective of this 2012 analysis was to assess the metallurgical response of the uranium mineralization from relatively coarse samples (-0.25 in.).
Testing was conducted at Inter-Mountain Labs (IML) in Sheridan, Wyoming, by R and D Enterprises, Inc. of Casper Wyoming, under the supervision of T.P. McNulty and Associates of Tucson, Arizona, all of whom are independent of Crosshair.
Source: http://www.crosshairenergy.com