Oklo Resources tests confirm gold leach recoveries above 97% in oxide at Seko

Oklo Resources tests confirm gold leach recoveries above 97% in oxide at Seko

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Oklo Resources Ltd (ASX:OKU) (FRA:JYA) has received encouraging results from metallurgical test-work on SK1 mineralisation at Seko within the company’s flagship Dandoko project in west Mali. SK1 exhibits straightforward, non-refractory metallurgical characteristics, with a likely processing route incorporating a simple, industry-standard cyanide leach circuit. Oxide mineralisation at SK1 achieved leach recoveries more than 97% at a coarse grind size (P80 106μm) and finer grind sizes, indicating that the material is not grind sensitive. Transition mineralisation at SK1 achieved leach recoveries of more than 81% at a finer P80 53μm grind size but this material only makes up around 2% of the resource tonnage at SK1. The transition mineralisation at SK1 was also further subjected to flotation test-work, with a very high gold recovery of 96.6%, indicating amenability to gold concentration by flotation. Test-work confirms mineralisation Oklo’s managing director Simon Taylor said: “The metallurgical test-work results reported from SK1 continue to confirm the mineralisation captured in our initial Dandoko MRE as amenable to a simple gold processing flowsheet. “The results from the oxide zone, in particular, comprising almost all of the mineralisation at SK1 and around 65% of the total MRE, are highly favourable. “The company will now embark on the next stage of the test-work program to investigate optimal processing options and scenarios based on these encouraging metallurgical results, which continue to indicate that simple industry-standard cyanide leach processing is appropriate for the Dandoko Project.” SK1 metallurgical test-work A metallurgical program has been completed at the company’s SK1 prospect following the previous positive metallurgical study results from SK2 released in April 2020. The new metallurgical tests were undertaken on two composite samples, representing soft oxide zone mineralisation grading a weighted average of about 8.2 g/t gold and a targeted sulphide transition zone mineralisation of about 4.9 g/t. The test work was undertaken by ALS Metallurgy in Perth, Western Australia, under the supervision of Lycopodium Minerals in Brisbane, Queensland. Results will inform further variability test-work based upon the weathering domains identified in the Dandoko mineral resource estimate (MRE) to investigate the optimal processing route for the project. Low total and organic carbon results indicate that preg-robbing should not be an issue in either the oxide or transition zone mineralisation. Further work The company plans to start variability test-work on the other metallurgical domains identified in the MRE to investigate the optimal processing route for incorporation into the ongoing technical studies for the Dandoko project. This work will also include cyanidation of the transition zone composite at a finer grind size and cyanidation of the oxide composite at a coarser grind size to test sensitivity to grind size for process flow sheet optimisation. While the current technical studies are centred on the initial MRE as a base case scenario, the gold mineralisation at Seko remains open at depth and along strike. Ongoing exploration success from the current drilling programs may influence the direction of future studies.

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