Bannerman pleased with demo plant

Bannerman Resources this week reported further positive results from Phase 3 of its Etango Heap Leach Demonstration Plant Programme.
The Phase 3 results Bannerman explained were similar to or better than the assumptions used in the Etango Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) and have delivered a clear potential to further reduce operating cost estimates.
Highlights of Phase 3 testing showed fast leach extraction with high recoveries, low sulphuric acid consumption, a highly pure product, excellent material properties, clear and clean leach solution with uniform percolation through the material and integrity of the agglomerate, no evidence of build-up of deleterious elements occurring during the recycling of leach solution.
Bannerman added that its growing metallurgical database now reflects large scale testing of 273 tonnes of material since commencement of the heap leach demonstration plant program in April 2015. Bannerman´s Chief Executive Officer, Brandon Munro, said, “We continue to be greatly encouraged by
the results from the heap leach demonstration plant. This latest success further de-risks the Etango process route and adds to the significant body of high quality technical work that underpins the large in-ground resource at Etango. We continue to optimise the Definitive Feasibility Study with a focus on reducing operating and capital costs. The Phase 3 results give us plenty of scope for revisiting key assumptions such as acid consumption.”
Added Munro, “these crib results are considered to be highly significant as the conditions are more representative of the agglomeration, stacking, irrigation and drainage methodology expected during a commercial heap leach operation and as such would provide a more accurate picture of the expected results for the full scale plant.”