Stellar AfricaGold - Balandougou Gravity Mill Efficieny Review Complete and Adjustments Underway
(TheNewswire)
Vancouver, July 25, 2018 / TheNewswire / John Cumming, President and Chief Executive Officer of Stellar AfricaGold Inc., (TSX-V: SPX) ("Stellar" or the "Company") is pleased to announce:
Gravity Mill Efficiency Review Complete and Adjustments Underway
Stellar is pleased to announce that the review of processing operations at the Balandougou gravity mill is complete. Several processing inefficiencies were identified including the efficacy of the grinding within the ball mill, the configuration of the Knelson concentrators and the adjustment of the shaking table. Corrective measures to improve these production inefficiencies and increase the gold recovery are underway and the necessary changes and upgrades together with other minor adjustments to the plant equipment are expected to be completed by the end of August at which time processing of the 15,000 tons bulk sample of B3 Zone gold mineralization will resume.
Management Commentary
“Following the temporary cessation of processing activities in early July, an intensive review of processing operations including consultations with Stellar’s on-site technical team, other mining operators and mining equipment providers was undertaken” commented Stellar COO Maurice Giroux.
Mr. Giroux further explained “The free gold within the B3 oxide Zone ranges from ‘fine’ to ‘very fine’ and for maximum gold recovery it is essential that all of the individual components within the mill circuit operate at peak efficiency and at full capacity.
The gold within the B3 sheared zone gold is of two types; either it is free gold after the oxidization of the host material or has resisted oxidation and remains contained within the quartz veins. The Ball Mill, the last component within the primary and secondary crushing lines, is designed to pulverize incoming quartz from the secondary crusher down to smaller than 0.1millimeter. However, a notable amount of the input quartz was only being crushed to between 0.5 and 1.0 centimeter in size which had to be screened out of the circuit because they were too large to be pumped into the Knelson Concentrators. An offsite grinding test on 2 tons of those oversized quartz pieces revealed that the rejected quartz contained approximately 1.25g/t Au, a significant amount of unrecovered gold. The Company is now adapting a closed circuit which will return the oversized quartz to the Ball Mill for reprocessing.
Following constructive discussions with several other experts in gravity gold recovery, the Company is also altering the configuration of their two Knelson Concentrators. The Concentrators will be reinstalled in series rather than parallel as they previously. Stellar is also seeking a Falcon Concentrator to add it as a third concentrator in the concentration circuit. A Falcon Concentrator, which is exceptionally efficient at the recovery of very fine gold, i.e. smaller than 10 microns in size, would capture the very fine gold that was not captured by the two Knelsons. However, the search for a Falcon concentrator will not delay restarting processing operations at the mill.
Finally, the size of the slurry basin between the Ball Mill and the Knelsons will be doubled to increase overall processing capacity.”
Stellar AfricaGold Inc. is a Canadian gold exploration company with offices in Vancouver, BC and Montreal, QC, and operations concentrated in West Africa and in Quebec.
In addition to developing its Balandougou Gold Project in Guinea including construction of a 150 tonnes per day gravity mill (construction completed) to process a 15,000 tonnes bulk sample to test the commercial economics of gravity extraction only. In Quebec, the Company owns 100% of the Opawica Project in the Chibougamau mining camp.
The technical content of this press release has been reviewed and approved by independent consultant Greg Isenor, P. Geo, a Qualified Person as defined in NI 43-101.
For further information please contact:
John Cumming, President & CEO, Stellar AfricaGold Inc.
4908 Pine Crescent, Vancouver, BC, V6M 3P6, .
Email: stellarafricagoldinformation@gmail.com
Maurice Giroux, VP Exploration, Stellar AfricaGold Inc.,
1035 West Laurier Street, Suite 201, Montréal, QC H2V 2L1
Email: mgiroux.stellar@gmail.com
Additional information is available on the Company’s website at www.stellarafricagold.com.
On Behalf of the Board
John Cumming, LLM
President & CEO
This release contains certain "forward-looking information" under applicable Canadian securities laws concerning the Arrangement. Forward-looking information reflects the Company’s current internal expectations or beliefs and is based on information currently available to the Company. In some cases forward-looking information can be identified by terminology such as "may", "will", "should", "expect", "intend", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "projects", "potential", "scheduled", "forecast", "budget" or the negative of those terms or other comparable terminology. Assumptions upon which such forward-looking information is based includes, among others, that the conditions to closing of the Arrangement will be satisfied and that the Arrangement will be completed on the terms set out in the definitive agreement. Many of these assumptions are based on factors and events that are not within the control of the Company, and there is no assurance they will prove to be correct or accurate. Risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted herein include, without limitation: that the remaining conditions to the Arrangement will not be satisfied; that the business prospects and opportunities of the Company will not proceed as anticipated; changes in the global prices for gold or certain other commodities (such as diesel, aluminum and electricity); changes in U.S. dollar and other currency exchange rates, interest rates or gold lease rates; risks arising from holding derivative instruments; the level of liquidity and capital resources; access to capital markets, financing and interest rates; mining tax regimes; ability to successfully integrate acquired assets; legislative, political or economic developments in the jurisdictions in which the Company carries on business; operating or technical difficulties in connection with mining or development activities; laws and regulations governing the protection of the environment; employee relations; availability and increasing costs associated with mining inputs and labour; the speculative nature of exploration and development; contests over title to properties, particularly title to undeveloped properties; and the risks involved in the exploration, development and mining business. Risks and unknowns inherent in all projects include the inaccuracy of estimated reserves and resources, metallurgical recoveries, capital and operating costs of such projects, and the future prices for the relevant minerals.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
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