https://www.miningweekly.com

Trilogy reports maiden cobalt resource estimate for Alaska project

6th June 2018

By: Anine Kilian

Contributing Editor Online

     

Font size: - +

Alaska-focused mineral explorer Trilogy Metals on Monday reported a maiden 77-million-pound cobalt resource for its Bornite project.

The resource estimate used assay data from drill holes completed by the company between 2011 and 2013 and re-sampled historic holes drilled in the 1960s and 1970s.

“The metallurgical test work completed to date indicates that 80% to 90% of the cobalt reports to the copper tails as cobaltiferous pyrite. This is great because forming a pyrite concentrate from the copper tails should be relatively straightforward using flotation or dense media separation,” CEO Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse said in a statement.

He added that, in the next few months, Trilogy will complete flotation test work to concentrate cobalt into a pyrite-rich product that can be considered for further upgrading and recovery of cobalt metal at the Bornite site.

Owing to Trilogy’s ongoing metallurgical test work, the company has determined that a cobalt product may be produced on site and, therefore, justifies reporting an initial cobalt resource in addition to the already existing copper resource at Bornite.

At a base case 0.50% copper cutoff grade, and within the combined indicated and inferred copper resource pit shell, the Bornite project is estimated to contain in-pit inferred resources of 124.6-million tonnes grading 0.017% cobalt for 45-million pounds of contained cobalt.

Below the resource limiting pit shell and at a base case cutoff grade of 1.5% copper, the Bornite project is estimated to contain additional inferred resources of 57.8-million tonnes grading 0.025% cobalt for 32-million pounds of contained cobalt.

Total inferred resources include 182.4-million tonnes grading 0.019% cobalt for 77-million pounds of contained cobalt.

“With the market interest in finding cobalt resources outside of the Congo – where child labour and worker exploitation have been highlighted by Amnesty International and others as problematic for the automotive and electric battery industries - defining a large, North American cobalt resource has become a priority for the company,” Van Nieuwenhuyse noted.

“We expect to continue to grow both the copper and the cobalt resources with an 8 000 m to 10 000 m drill programme of in-fill and resource expansion drilling about to get under way during the summer field programme in Alaska,” he added.

Edited by Chanel de Bruyn
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor Online

Comments

The content you are trying to access is only available to subscribers.

If you are already a subscriber, you can Login Here.

If you are not a subscriber, you can subscribe now, by selecting one of the below options.

For more information or assistance, please contact us at subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za.

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION