Gold recovery tests continue on tailings of Manitou mill

Operator of the project is a private company, Gold Spinners International, whose initial production tests early this year led related mining companies St. Genevieve Resources (TSE) and Louvem Mines (TSE) to request a trading suspension on both the Toronto and Montreal stock exchanges, March 1.

Trading in both stocks resumed May 8 in Montreal and May 9 in Toronto.

Louvem is the owner of the Manitou mill and tailings pond. It allowed Gold Spinners to work the tailings (the main body of which is about 11 million tons in size) in return for a 20% net profits interest. St. Genevieve is the majority owner of Louvem and has an agreement with Gold Spinners assuring St. Genevieve a 27.2% net profits interest in the tailings project.

Asked to perform independent tests on the tailings material were the Centre de Recherches Minerales in Quebec City and the New Brunswick Research and Productivity Council of Fredericton, N.B. Column flotation system

Gold Spinners is using its own unique column flotation system for the tests. The column, 35 ft high and 8 ft in diameter, separates the tailings material, with 80% of the heavier throughput falling to the bottom, and 20% floating to the top mainly in the form of a sulphide concentrate. (Gold Spinners has also developed centrifuge technology, but it is not being used on the Manitou tailings.)

Gold Spinners treated 5,124 tons of the material at the Beacon mill of Aurizon Mines (TSE), with “amazing” results. According to the company, a portion (1,722 tons) of the material treated, which was assayed at 0.028 oz gold per ton, ended up grading 0.056 oz at the pouring stage, twice what the analysis indicated.

According to the Quebec City laboratory, about 75% of the gold is recovered in the sulphide concentrates. The New Brunswick laboratory does not agree, reporting the gold stays with the flotation tailings.

In addition to gold values, the Manitou tailings (from the mill waste of a deposit which was not mined for its gold) contain zinc, copper, lead and silver.

The two laboratories have been asked to review each others’ testing procedures. In particular, they are to look for the possible existence of masking agents in the tailings that may be distorting traditional fire assay results.

At a recent Toronto press conference, St. Genevieve Chairman Pierre Gauthier said a feasibility study for the tailings recovery project has yet to be undertaken.

Bulk testing of the material will continue, but not at the Beacon mill, which Aurizon needs for its own use. Gauthier said the Manitou mill is being prepared for Gold Spinners and should be ready for testing operations during the first half of June.

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