Argent produces commercial grade zinc and lead concentrates
ArgentMinerals Limited (ASX:ARD) has achieved a significant new milestone for theKempfield polymetallic project. ARD reports the successful separation ofprimary material into potentially marketable commercial grade zinc and leadconcentrates that also contain silver and gold.
The extraction of zinc and lead into separate concentrates marks asignificant advance towards project development, as the company pursues theredefinition of Kempfield as an economically viable polymetallic project withmultiple revenue streams at prevailing market prices.
Under the project redefinition validated by today's results, zincbecomes the major contributor to potential revenue, followed by silver, leadand gold. This substantially boosts the economics and de-risks the project.
As well as the overall favourable market conditions for zincproducers, the polymetallic project also has significant upside leverage to anyfuture silver price rises.
The following results were achieved by a flotationtest followed by the regrinding of lead rougher concentrates and conducting aseries cleaning tests for separate lead and zinc flotation circuits:
Of course, as with all minerals exploration, success is notguaranteed - consider your own personal circumstances before investing, andseek professional financial advice.
The test results also showed that optimum commercialperformance is achievable by a relatively simple process, and that primary grindparticle size well within industry peer process plant design practice.
ARG's next steps for metallurgical testing are likely to includevariability testing across the various mineralogical domains of the Kempfielddeposit. This will require additional samples to be collected.
The metallurgical engineer has prescribed a highly cost-efficientmethod based on collecting samples from reverse circulation (RC) drilling andprotecting the samples from oxidation by storage within nitrogen-filledcontainers prior to freezer storage at the metallurgical laboratory facilities.
This method has been determined by the metallurgical engineer asappropriate for the current stage of the Kempfield project, avoiding the needfor costly dedicated metallurgical diamond drilling whilst making use ofsamples obtained for exploration and resource infill drilling.
Following its review of the company's projects, the ARD Board hasdetermined that drilling is to proceed at Kempfield as the top priority.
Planning is underway for an initial drilling program, the designof which is guided by the new geological model and the ARD's internal projecteconomics model that has been updated based on today's metallurgical results.
The drill plan and strategy will be announced separately to theASX on completion of the design work.
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