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Montreal-based Osisko Metals has the results of flotation tests on material from its Pine Point zinc-lead project 65 km east of Hay River, in Canada’s Northwest Territories.
The tests were performed on drill core samples from the 2018-19 campaign that were pre-concentrated using an x-ray transmission material sorter.
Optimized rougher flotation tests recovered 95.3% to 97.7% of the zinc, compared to 80.4% to 91.5% in the first tests done. Likewise, optimized cleaner tests had zinc recoveries between 93.1% and 94.5%, compared to initial recoveries of 83.9% to 87.7%.
The optimized lead rougher had recoveries of 96.7% to 97.4%, compared to previous work that recovered 97.5% to 99.0% of the lead. Optimized lead cleaner recovery was 87.4% to 92.4%, compared to initial recoveries of 92.2% to 95.9%.
After optimization, the zinc cleaner produced a concentrate that graded 64.1% zinc and 0.3% lead. The lead cleaner product was 1.2% zinc and 91.4% lead.
The Pine Point project has an inferred resource of 38.4 million tonnes at 4.58% zinc and 1.85% lead, containing 3.9 billion lb. zinc and 1.6 billion lb. lead.
(This article first appeared in the Canadian Mining Journal)
