Friday, 28th September 2007 (1734 views)

Management at Atlanta Gold has announced that it believes there is an opportunity to "significantly improve upon" the average heap leach recovery rate at its Atlanta project, which was reported at 64 per cent, according to a 2005 feasibility study.

The mining company, along with independent engineering consulting firms, is evaluating parallel heap leaching and milling circuits in an effort to increase gold recoveries at the Idaho-based project.

It said that information from several metallurgical studies undertaken in the late 1980s through the end of the 1990s indicates that the property could have a potential recovery rate as high as 90 per cent if the operation is changed from an open-pit mine to a selective mining and milling operation

New refractory ore processing facilities could provide a final gold recovery step, using autoclaves or roasters to separate gold from sulfides, the company said, adding that the current studies could lead to an overall recovery improvement from 64 per cent to around 75 per cent, if it is found that the proposed changes are justified.

The Atlanta project, located one and a half miles south of Atlanta, Idaho, is intended to produce 500,000 ounces of gold over a mine life of seven to ten years.

 

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