Canadian North Resources (TSXV: CNRI; OTCQX: CNRSF) reported nickel and cobalt recoveries using bioleaching technology that were much higher than those of conventional flotation.
In tests of samples from its Ferguson Lake copper-nickel-cobalt-palladium-platinum project in New Brunswick, bioleaching recovered between 96.1% and 98.5% of the nickel and 96.1% and 97.7% of the cobalt. Conventional flotation results were 29% to 51% for nickel and 48% to 49% for cobalt.
The use of bioleaching would significantly increase the value of current mineral resources, noted the company.
The tests were conducted by the New Brunswick Research and Productivity Council (RPC) at its laboratory in Fredericton, N.B.
Canadian North has been working with RPC to apply bioleaching technology for the Ferguson Lake project since early May 2024. The bioleaching tests were conducted on two samples: a bulk sample of massive sulphides collected from an outcrop in the Central zone, and a sample of rougher sulphide tails from flotation tests on the massive sulphides completed by SGS Lakefield Canada. The initial tests were focused on the extraction of nickel and cobalt from both samples.
Preliminary results indicate that both the massive sulphides and the rougher sulphide tails are amenable to bioleaching with very high extraction rates for nickel (96.1% to 98.5%) and cobalt (96.1% to 97.7%). Tests are ongoing using the bioleaching solution with extracted metals to produce high purity of nickel-cobalt sulphates for battery manufacturing. Testing is also being extended for copper and precious metals recovery from both samples.
“Bioleaching will significantly simplify mineral processing, bypass smelting and refining, and substantially reduce the capital expenses for mine development, energy consumption, and operating costs for production,” said Canadian North president and CEO Kaihui Yang. “We believe that bioleaching is a promising technology for developing a low-cost, low-carbon footprint green mine, reinforcing our commitment to sustainable practices at the Ferguson Lake project.”
The Ferguson Lake property contains a 43-101 compliant resource estimate announced on March 19 ,2024, which includes an indicated resource of 66.1 million tonnes containing 1.1 billion lb. copper at 0.75%, 678 million lb. nickel at 0.47%, 79.3 million lb. cobalt at 0.05%, 2.34 million oz. palladium at 1.10 g/t, and 418,000 oz. platinum at 0.19 g/t. The inferred resource is 25.9 million tonnes containing 558 million lb. copper at 0.98%, 333 million lb. nickel at 0.58%, 39.6 million lb. cobalt at 0.07%, 1.2 million oz. palladium at 1.43 g/t, and 205,000 oz. platinum at 0.25 g/t. Eight per cent of the indicated resource is minable by open pit with 52.7 million tonnes at 0.65% copper, 0.43% nickel, 0.05% cobalt, 0.97 g/t palladium, and 0.17 g/t platinum.
More information is posted on www.CNResources.com.
