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LONDON (Alliance News) - Harvest Minerals Ltd Tuesday said the results from the latest agronomic and metallurgical testwork conducted at the Maximus prospect, part of its Arapua fertiliser project in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, have met expectations by delivering "positive results".
The company said no toxic elements are present within the product tested at the site and said the solubility results were "excellent". Solubility measures how much of a substance will dissolve in a given volume of a liquid.
Results showed total solubility for phosphorus pentoxide ranging from 50.4% to 53.36% and for potassium oxide, solubility ranged from 90.99% to 95.0% in 2.0% citric acid - which is close to the acidity levels of the soils in Cerrado area where the Maximus project is located.
The pH, referring to the scale that measures how acidic a substance is, ranged from 6.54 to 6.74, which Harvest said was "almost neutral", supporting the products potential as a sopil neutraliser as well as a "remineraliser", meaning it could be capable of helping soil recover lost nutrients.
As a result, the company has elected to make an application for its Direct Application Natural Fertiliser products at Maximus to be classified as a "soil remineraliser" with the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply.
"Whilst not a compulsory registration, Harvest considers that seeking the accreditation could offer long term marketing benefits moving forward," said the business. "The results of this testwork were all well within the required specifications for a soil mineraliser and have exceeded the company's expectations."
Harvest said metallurgical testwork supports that the product grades can be increased through a simple wet sieving process.
"The significance of this [metallurgical] testwork is, in part, that it offers Harvest the option to be able to produce and market products with different grades in order to service different market sectors as commercial production develops," said Harvest.
The company said the application submitted to obtain a trial mining licence is still progressing whilst the environmental permit, which is needed before the trial mining permit can be secured, is expected "in the next few weeks".
A mining contractor should be appointed within the next month and site works will start once the environmental permit has been awarded.
Additionally, based on the strength of the drilling and lab results to date, Harvest intends to undertake a drilling programme by the end of the year to define the existing mineralisation, increase the current indicated resource and possibly the life of the mine and to evaluate whether production could be increased from the current plan.
Harvest said it will start conducting further kinetic and agronomic efficiency testing by late September, with the results to assist in identifying product classification and optimization for commercial production, post the initial trial mining period.
By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance
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