Croinor testing successful

A bulk sample from the Croinor gold project in the eastern Abitibi district of Quebec has yielded 3,834 oz. gold in a milling campaign.

Owner South Malartic Exploration (MSU-V) mined a total of 24,363 tonnes of material from an open pit at Croinor, which was shipped to Richmont Mines’ (RIC-T) Camflo mill near Val d’Or. The sample had a head grade of 5.4 grams gold, and a recovered grade of 5 grams, per tonne.

The results are in line with estimates by consulting firm Innovexplo, which calculated a measured and indicated resource of 1.4 million tonnes grading 6.3 grams gold per tonne at Croinor last June. Earlier test mining had produced millhead grades in the range of 1.8 to 2.5 grams per tonne and disappointing gold recoveries.

The latest resource estimate on the property put the size of the deposit at 1.4 million tonnes (measured and indicated) grading 6.3 grams gold per tonne, including an “isolated block” of 300,000 tonnes running 5.9 grams. Increasing the cutoff grade to 5 grams from 2 grams per tonne yielded a resource of 620,000 tonnes grading 10.4 grams, with just over 100,000 tonnes in the “isolated block” averaging 11.1 grams per tonne.

The company is now looking at funding a prefeasibility study on underground production from the project.