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Rokmaster Resources (TSXV: RKR) has developed a high-recovery extraction process for gold, silver and other metals for the first time in the history of its Revel Ridge polymetallic project in British Columbia.
The recently concluded metallurgical test program assessed metal recovery technologies to refine and optimize the metallurgical responses of the Revel Ridge Main zone (RRMZ) refractory mineralization. The RRMZ is a continuous, structurally controlled orogenic gold system with multiple on-strike occurrences known along a 7 to 8 km trend.
For more than two years, Rokmaster has undertaken numerous metallurgical tests to improve the flowsheet from an initial overall gold recovery of 74.3% achieved in the fall of 2020. The latest metallurgical test work and repeatable locked cycle tests provided exactly that, with an updated flowsheet that is returned overall gold recoveries at 96.8%.
“Rokmaster has defined an efficient process flowsheet that achieves significantly improved recoveries of all target metals, and is the first of its kind for the Revel Ridge project since work first began on the RRMZ in 1912,” said president John Mirko in a media release.
“The metallurgical developments by Canenco Consulting, Base Metallurgical Laboratories and SGS Canada (Lakefield) have advanced the flowsheet to provide a robust, repeatable gold extraction process that significantly de-risks the Revel Ridge project.”
The Revel Ridge property is located 35 km north of the city of Revelstoke, covering a total area of 196 sq. km with year-round access. It is host to an orogenic sulphide deposit for which to a preliminary economic assessment was done in 2020. The PEA outlined a high-grade underground mine with after-tax net present value of C$423 million and internal rate of return of 29.5% (at 5% discount).
An underground drill program is currently underway to test the gold-mineralized zones at Revel Ridge, with a view of expanding the resource that was last updated in November 2021.
As shown in the recent estimate, the Revel Ridge deposit contains 6.73 million tonnes in the measured and indicated category averaging 3.69 g/t gold (nearly 800,000 contained oz. gold), plus about 6 million tonnes inferred averaging 4.7 g/t gold (906,100 oz. gold). About 70% of the total resource is within the RRMZ.
Rokmaster will now progress with additional metallurgical testing of other parts of the RRMZ, including the visible native gold areas, updating the project’s PEA and engineering as it continues drilling for resource expansion.
