Wallbridge milling tests work (November 27, 2006)

Test work on a 175-kg sample from the Broken Hammer copper deposit near Sudbury, Ont., has shown good recoveries to gravity and bulk flotation concentrates, says owner Wallbridge Mining (WM-T, WLBMF-O).

The test work, done at SGS Lakefield Research, produced a gravity concentrate to isolate precious metals followed by a bulk flotation concentrate containing the base metals. Based on analyses of the process products and wastes, SGS calculated a head grade of 0.53% copper, 0.09% nickel, 0.53% sulphur, 1.89 grams platinum, 1.32 grams palladium and 0.55 gram gold per tonne.

The gravity concentrate contained 3,700 grams total precious metals per tonne, recovering 67% of the platinum, 39% of the gold and 9% of the palladium in the test material. Wallbridge says refineries would take a concentrate of that tenor without the need for smelting.

The flotation concentrate ran about 22% copper and recovered 91% of the copper, 34% of the nickel, 22% of the platinum, 68% of the palladium and 45% of the gold. Total recovery of metal to the two concentrates ranged from 78% for palladium to 92% for copper.

Broken Hammer has an inferred resource of 251,000 tonnes grading 1% copper, 0.1% nickel, 1.62 grams platinum, 1.56 grams palladium and 0.61 gram gold per tonne. Wallbridge has a 100% interest in the project, having bought out a 36% interest held by Xstrata (XTA-L, XSRAF-O) through its takeover of Falconbridge.

In a separate development, Wallbridge’s spinoff Duluth Metals (DM-T) has started trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange following an inital public offering. Duluth issued 12.9 million units, each consisting of a share and half a warrant exercisable at $1.10 until the end of September 2008. Duluth has 45.2 million shares outstanding, of which Wallbridge holds 10 million.