TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – TSX-V- and BVL-listed Lupaka Gold has started shipping a 900 t ore sample from its Invicta gold mine site for an initial toll mill test campaign at a toll mill near La Oroya, in central Peru.
The processing campaign would test and demonstrate grinding and recovery kinetics, chemical consumption, treatment cost and final concentrate grade performance.
The campaign at the San Juan Evangelista plant was expected to run until late in September and the results would be available soon after. The plant would generate copper/gold, lead/silver and zinc concentrate products.
"The project is advancing as planned toward the start of operations later this year. The Invicta project is one of the few near-term production projects that we see in the gold sector today.
“Given our progress over the last year, excellent grades, in-place operating permits, infrastructure and supportive community relations, we remain committed to advancing the project,” Lupaka president and CEO Eric Edwards stated.
Consulting engineering firm Certimin would supervise the bulk test to collect enough processing performance data to guide the design and potential construction of the company’s own dedicated process plant.
The Invicta gold project contained a polymetallic resource primarily comprised of gold with extra copper and, to a lesser degree, lead, silver and zinc.
Lupaka aimed at starting production at an initial rate of 100 t/d this year, scaling up to 350 t/d, subject to available financing. The mining operations would at first target some of the highest-grade gold and copper mineralisation within the project's Atenea vein.
The company was also looking at potentially buying a process plant or site closer to the Invicta mine to provide for the most efficient growth and expansion of the project.