AIM-listed Africa-focused nickel miner
African Eagle Resources has today announced the selection of what it considers to be the quickest and most cost efficient metallurgical process -atmospheric tank leaching- for its flagship Dutwa nickel oxide project in Tanzania. The above is an integral part of the process of finalizing the Dutwa bankable feasibility study, which in turn is critical if the company hopes to meet its financial projections, such as the capital pay-back period for example. The process in question is the result of two years of test work which has determined that Dutwa ore, "allows simplified processing, with atmospheric leach methods resulting in rapid extraction without the need for the challenging and costly high-pressure acid leach technologies that have proven problematic elsewhere."A pilot plant work programme of continuous fully integrated testing is in development for final confirmation of the performance of the Dutwa atmospheric leach process flowsheet; the pilot plant will treat ore samples representative of the planned mining schedule at Dutwa. The Company is in advanced stage negotiations with Australian laboratories that have the ability to perform the pilot plant operation and testing.As of 16:11pm shares of African Eagle Resources are down by 4.4% to 5.38p. AB