Nordic Mines AB (publ): Encouraging Assay Results from sorting test work
(Thomson Reuters ONE) -
On 26(th) September Nordic Mines ('The Company') announced the successful
completion of a 70-ton sorting test at the Bjorkdal mine, Sweden. 25 tons of
material was sent to two laboratories in Finland for sample preparation and
assay.
We have now received assay results from the first batches of the Bjorkdal
sorting test samples. Further assay results will be received in January.
We are very encouraged by the results to date. It is evident that optical
sorting systems have the potential to transform the economics at the Laiva mine.
However, there is room for improvement, both in sorter settings and washing for
cleaner rock surfaces to facilitate quartz detection.
Whilst the forecast upgrades to 1.33 g/t are close to our best expectation, it
is clear that further threshold optimization work needs to be carried out on the
volcanics, the second of the ore types. Over aggressive threshold settings
carried out on the volcanics during the tests, resulted in losses of gold in the
waste, which with further adjustment of settings, we believe will be reduced.
The settings used allowed mainly larger quartz particles to be sorted as ore and
many of the smaller quartz particles were reported as waste. By lowering the
threshold settings for quartz in the ore type volcanics, more quartz including
gold reports to the sorted ore stream.
Because optical sorting systems are in themselves a secondary strip, the
exercise of going forward becomes a fine balance between increasing gold grade
together with management of the waste fraction. Optimisation programs will
continue even during the commercial phase. Table 1 presents the average result
from the assays received. Further threshold tests are planned for the New Year.
Table 1. Average results from sorting test (including some preliminary assays)
+---------+-----+------+------+-------+-------+-------+-------+--------+-------+
| | | | | | | | Gold | | |
| | |Sorted|Sorter|Mass-% |Mass-% | Gold | down- |Recovery| |
| Ore | | rock | feed | Ore | Waste |upgrade| grade |of gold |Number |
| Type | Pit | size | gold | after | after |of ore | of | in the | of |
| | | mm | grad |sorting|sorting| after | waste |sorting |Samples|
| | | | g/t | | |sorting| after | plant | |
| | | | | | | |sorting| | |
+---------+-----+------+------+-------+-------+-------+-------+--------+-------+
| Quartz |North|50-100| 0,73 | 30 % | 70 % | 130 % | -50 % | 65 % | 4 |
| Diorite | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | |
|Volcanics|South|50-100| 0,85 | 17 % | 83 % | 166 % | -28 % | 40 % | 5 |
+---------+-----+------+------+-------+-------+-------+-------+--------+-------+
One sample is outside expected gold grade range and
not included in the average.
+---------+-----+------+------+-------+-------+-------+-------+--------+-------+
| Quartz |South|50-100| 2,29 | 36 % | 64 % | 113 % | -63 % | 77 % | 1 |
| Diorite | | | | | | | | | |
+---------+-----+------+------+-------+-------+-------+-------+--------+-------+
It is important to note that the sorted ore will make up less than 50 % of the
feed to the plant. The majority of the ore feed to the process plant are
particles finer than the sorted rock being below 50 mm in size. The fines
derive partly from blasting, when the ore is mined, and partly from two crushing
steps before the ore is further treated. The gold grade in this finer material
is much higher than in the material that goes to the sorter because it contains
more gold bearing quartz. Quartz is brittle and breaks down easily when blasted
and crushed so that quartz and hence gold will accumulate more readily in finer
particles. Also reporting to the feed is grinding media which by definition is
comprised of coarser rock pieces measuring up to 200 mm. These have a lower gold
grade than the material going to the sorter. Together these three materials,
sorted ore, fine particles and grinding media, make up the final feed to the
plant.
Andrew Malim, Head of Laiva Mine Development comments
We are pleased to report that based on an average - run - of - mine grade of
0,95 g/t, we estimate an upgrade of 40% for the assayed sorted quartz diorite
ore combined with fines and grinding media which would be reporting to the mill.
Further assay results are due in January 2017. The use of optical sorting during
our commercial production phase is expected to lower our cutoff grade and hence
upgrade our mineable reserves. This will allow a bulk mining approach which will
transform our base case economics and make Laiva a profitable mine at current
gold prices.
Upgrading results are most affected by thresholds and the size of the ore
fractions. Hence, for reasons explained in this Release, ongoing optimisation of
the programs will be necessary prior to and during operations from which I
believe further grade improvements are still achievable.
CEO's Commentary
The recent sorting tests at Bjorkdal confirm our belief that the use of optical
sorting used in tandem with the existing new AG mill will significantly enhance
the grade and quality of our mill feed and provide the basis of a profitable
restart of mining operations at Laiva once refinanced. We would like to thank
the dedication of our staff and the advice and input of our partners at Outotec.
More testwork on the volcanics will take place in the coming months and we
believe that further grade improvements are achievable with practice and
experience. We look forward to keeping shareholders updated with our progress
For additional information, please contact: D. Saradhi Rajan, CEO:
+44 207 993 5261 (switchboard) or Rune Nordström, Head of Corporate
Communications and Investor Relations: rune.nordstrom(at)nordicmines.com,
+46 70 602 65 20
For more information about Nordic Mines, please visit; www.nordicmines.com.
This information is Nordic Mines AB (publ) obliged to make public pursuant to
the EU Market Abuse Regulation, the Swedish Securities Market Act and Financial
Instruments Trading Act. The information was submitted for publication, through
the agency of the contact person set out above, at 1.30 pm GMT on 21 December
2016.
Nordic Mines is a Nordic mining and exploration company. The Laiva mine in
Finland produced gold between 2011 and 2014. The deposit is among the largest in
the Nordic region. Nordic Mines is a member of SveMin and applies its reporting
regulations for public mining and exploration companies. The Nordic Mines share
has been admitted for trading on Nasdaq Stockholm's Small Cap list. For further
information, see www.nordicmines.com.
Press release (PDF):
http://hugin.info/138647/R/2067028/776109.pdf
This announcement is distributed by Nasdaq Corporate Solutions on behalf of Nasdaq Corporate Solutions clients.
The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein.
Source: Nordic Mines AB via GlobeNewswire
Unternehmensinformation / Kurzprofil:
Datum: 21.12.2016 - 13:45 Uhr
Sprache: Deutsch
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