Canadian Critical Minerals (TSXV: CCMI; OTCQB: RIINF) is enjoying positive results by using a Steinert KSS 100 x-ray transmissive ore sorter to pre-concentrate ore from its Bull River mine. The copper-gold-silver-cobalt project is located near Cranbrook, B.C.
The pre-concentrated ore is trucked to the New Afton mill belonging to New Gold (TSX: NGD; NYSE: NGD) near Kamloops. The ore sorter was commissioned in February, and in March and early April 2024, the mine trucked 146 tonnes of ore grading 3.53% copper, 0.60 g/t gold, and 27.58 g/t silver.
The Bull River mine operated from 1971 to 1974. Two pits produced 471,899 tonnes of ore from which 16 million lb. of copper, 4,032 oz. of gold, and 204,800 oz. of silver were recovered.
“We are extremely pleased with the initial results of ore sorting. A 250% increase in copper grade exceeded our expectations,” said CCM president and CEO Ian Berzins. “With the ore sorter now commissioned, we plan to focus on optimization of quality and throughput.”
Bull River has an indicated resource of 2.3 million tonnes grading 1.80% copper, 0.422 g/t gold, and 15.5 g/t silver, containing 89.5 million lb. copper, 30,600 oz. gold, and 1.1 million oz. silver. The inferred resource is 1.4 million tonnes grading 1.60% copper, 0.417 g/t gold, and 13.6 g/t silver. Both categories were calculated at a copper equivalent cut-off of 0.9%. There is also a 180,000-tonne surface stockpile grading 1.8% copper.
More information is posted on www.CanadianCriticalMineralsInc.com.
