LONDON (Alliance News) - West African Minerals Corp Monday said test work at its Binga iron ore project in Cameroon has confirmed the opportunity to mine saleable magnetite concentrate and the positive benefits of using low intensity separation techniques.
The iron ore mining and exploration company said metallurgical test work from the Binga site have confirmed that saleable magnetite concentrate could be produced from the site at rates between 61% and 64% iron, depending on the size of its grinding equipment.
The company noted that roughly 25% of the mined material could potentially be rejected after crushing through low intensity magnetic separation.
West African Minerals said that tests showed mass recovery of 30% to 35% and iron recovery of 69% to 75% on grind sizes of 106 micrometres to 300 micrometres.
The company said that through low intensity separation it sees the potential benefit of lower mill power usage and lower operating costs compared to its existing magnetite concentrators.
West African Minerals said samples were taken from the test work which will progress and help define its work programme on site for the remainder of the year.
"Pending positive outcomes our goal is to complete significant additional drilling to increase the resource base at Binga and complete studies of haulage and shipping options which will all form the elements required to deliver a Preliminary Economic Assessment of Binga by the end of this year," President Brad Mills said in a statement.
The company also said that mapping and sampling at its near-coastal Sanaga licence also shows encouraging early results and surface geological mapping and sampling of iron mineralisation at its Lélé and Djadom licences have confirmed several prospective iron ore targets.
West African Minerals shares were up 0.4% to 6.15 pence Monday.
By Tom McIvor; tommcivor@alliancenews.com; @TomMcIvor1
Copyright © 2014 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
