Long time to fruition11 Aug 2018 21:23
How come commercial ops have not materialised with any company in the 7 years since this was published? If it was a goer then? I know things in the mining world are slow, but surely things should have moved on a great deal faster than they have since then?
'June 30, 2011
Firestone Ventures Now Reckons It Can Apply Alexander’s AmmLeach Processing Technology To Zinc Projects In Nevada As Well As In Guatemala
By Charles Wyatt
Source: Minesite.com
Good to know that the technical relationship formed between Canadian-listed Firestone Ventures and Aim-traded Alexander Mining continues to make progress. The two have been testing Alexander’s Ammleach mineral processing technology on ore from Firestone’s Torlon Hill zinc-lead-silver project in Guatemala. The results of the first round of metallurgical testwork were announced back in March. These focussed on selected representative samples with a head grade of 6.99% zinc, and resulted in an average zinc dissolution of 79 per cent. This showed that zinc recoveries of up to 75 per cent should be achievable, and both Matt Sutcliffe, executive chairman of Alexander Mining and Lori Walton, chief executive of Firestone Ventures were clearly very encouraged. As a result it was decided that Alexander would develop a conceptual process flow sheet for a treatment plant to produce zinc metal from Torlon Hill using AmmLeach.
The two of them also decided they would widen the scope of the technical relationship to include Firestone’s zinc oxide projects in Nevada. The following month they announced that preliminary stage amenability tests using the AmmLeach process had taken place on two grab rock samples from Firestone's Black Mountain and Antelope zinc properties. These samples, which ran to grades of 15.3% and 16.3% zinc respectively, produced high leaching recoveries. What Lori found particularly encouraging was that the process appeared to work on both smithsonite, which is zinc carbonate, and hemimorphite, which is zinc silicate, the two primary zinc-bearing minerals present at these two properties.
Firestone’s 1,245 metre drill programme at Black Mountain has recently been delayed as a result of very bad winter weather, but Lori reckons it is now about to commence. At the moment Firestone has an option to earn a 100 per cent interest in the Black Mountain project from Kinross Gold. The mineralisation consists of said hemimorphite and smithsonite, hosted by Devonian carbonate rocks. At the beginning of June the conceptual flowsheet for using AmmLeach for processing material from Torlon Hill made an appearance and is now being examined by the technical people at Firestone. The study summarizes a relatively simple conceptual operation involving heap leaching, solvent extraction and stream stripping to produce a zinc oxide product. The adoption of heap leaching would eliminate the need for milling, and for agitation leaching equipment and solid-liquid separation. Cost savings would be realized through the us