ASX-listed, European multi-metals development company, Adriatic Metals, has tabled some encouraging metallurgical test work results from its impressive multi-metals Veovača and Rupice prospects at the Vareš project in Bosnia.
According to the company, the preliminary results show excellent metallurgical recoveries and concentrate grades.
The Veovača prospect is a historical zinc-lead-barite-silver mine and Rupice is a high-grade zinc polymetallic deposit. Adriatic is spoilt for choice in terms of what its key metal commodity might be.
A mothballed processing plant is already on-site and the met work indicates that the plant will be suitable for processing ore streams from both deposits.
The test work samples were chosen to comprise of ore materials from Rupice and Veovača that would be typically mined and processed. This is considered important, as it provides a more representative sample and an accurate expectation of metal grades and recoveries that could be generated through a future processing operation at Vareš.
The average composited head grade of a typical mined volume of the Rupice ores was 4.8% zinc, 2.9% lead, 40% barium sulphate, 0.5% copper, 238 g/t silver and 1.8 g/t gold.
For Veovača, the average composited head grade of the ore sample was 1.7% zinc, 1.1% lead, 16% barium sulphate, 55 g/t silver and 0.1 g/t gold. “Head grade” is a term used to quantify the average ore grades of metal product that is fed into the processing plant.
The metal recovery test work results from Rupice were excellent, with 81.7% zinc, 90.4% lead, 71.7% barium sulphate, 82.7% copper, 92.6 % silver and 66.7% gold concentrates recovered.
The combined recovery test work from Veovača showed results of 90.5% zinc, 82.2% lead, 62.9 % silver and 29.9% gold concentrate recovered.
The test work also indicated that ore materials from both deposits have a low to moderate hardness, which is very positive and gives an indication of how much energy is required to crush the rocks.
The testing also revealed low levels of antimony and other deleterious elements.
The company is conducting further investigations to quantify these levels but reports that the grades are expected to be low and unlikely to cause issues or attract smelter penalties.
The addition of the precious metals, silver and gold, is a significant bonus for Adriatic, as it aspires to maximise net smelter revenues from any future operation at Vareš.
Adriatic Managing Director and CEO Paul Cronin said: “All Rupice concentrates exceed current specifications at a range of European and Chinese smelters, and in the case of barite, exceeding the American Petroleum Institute specification.”
“Our ongoing work on metallurgy has been conducted in conjunction with marketing studies with the aim to maximise net smelter revenues against competitor products being sourced by end-users. These are excellent initial results, and I am confident that results can be further optimised as we undertake more detailed test work to support the potential definitive feasibility study.”
Adriatic recently released a maiden mineral resource at its Rupice deposit totalling 9.4 million tonnes grading an exceptional 5.1% zinc, 3.3% lead, 1.8 g/t gold, 183 g/t silver, 0.6% copper and 31% barite.
The company also just updated its Veovača resource recording 7.4 million tonnes grading 1.4% zinc, 0.9% lead, 0.1 g/t gold, 41 g/t silver and 13% barite.
Adriatic’s strategic objectives in Bosnia appear to be running to plan now and the broader market will soon get a better idea of the potential metrics of this remarkable project via its metallurgical boost in the company’s upcoming scoping study.
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By Matt Birney
