ASX-listed Cobalt Blue is reported positive results from the test work conducted on Hudbay Minerals’ Flin Flon tailings, in Manitoba.
The companies previously announced a test work cooperation agreement, examining the use of Cobalt Blue’s technology to treat the Flin Flon tailings.
Cobalt Blue’s technology has the ability to recover gold, silver, copper, zinc, cobalt and sulphur from a pyrite/pyrrhotite concentrate produced from tailings.
A 50 kg sample of tailings from Flin Flon was received in August 2023 and subsequent laboratory scale ‘proof-of-concept’ testwork was undertaken, including flotation, thermal decomposition of pyrite, and leaching of kiln calcine.
Cobalt Blue said that the overall results achieved greater than 90% conversion of the pyrite into pyrrhotite and elemental sulphur.
These results would be used to design an overall flowsheet for the treatment of the tailings as part of the final test work. If the final test work results met expectations, then further discussions concerning the next stages of technical cooperation would be held, the company stated.
Hudbay’s Flin Flon operations came to a halt last year, after the closure of the 777 mine. The facility contains more than 100-million tonnes of tailings, which Hudbay is seeking to pull mineral value from.