Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Allied Nevada Gold Corp. (ANV) Launches Oxidation Pilot Plant Study on Strong Phase 1 & 2 Metallurgical Results, Taps Industry Vet for Key Role

Allied Nevada Gold, coming off solid results in Phase 1 testing (using bio-oxidation as an alternative to the originally planned and more traditional pressure oxidation processing) aimed at generating saleable gold/silver dore bars from concentrates at their flagship (61.4k-acre) Hycroft Mine near Winnemuca, has come out today with a report that Phase 2 of the ongoing metallurgical program is now complete, having produced positive results which are similar to Phase 1. Extremely encouraging capital and operating cost projections developed from these latest tests have sparked the initiation of a pilot plant level study via a third party laboratory which will use the Phase 2 ambient pressure alkaline oxidation (AAO) process on rougher concentrates. The bench-scale Phase 2 work in AAO using trona (sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate) as the pH modifier showed superb recovery capabilities, and management is now confident that they have a stable approach vector for making dore bars on-site in a highly economical fashion.

The pilot plant (expected to be complete by the end of this quarter) will hammer out a complete processing circuit covering grinding, flotation to rough concentrate, as well as the final oxidation and leaching stages, giving ANV a really good idea of what to expect in terms of the final logistical requirements and potential further process optimizations that may be executed with the eventual construction of a full-scale oxidation plant. The extant test data will be used in conjunction with capital and operating cost analysis, alongside the pilot plant work, to produce an updated prefeasibility study by privately held full-service design firm out of Tucson, M3 Engineering & Technology, a trusted ANV ally.

Extensive technical analysis highlighting the AAO process and its use as intended at Hycroft is available in the Pennstrom Consulting memorandum (includes Hazen Research and M3 backgrounders) on the ANV website (PDF). Compelling overall recovery efficiency and the related project economics are worth taking a closer look at, with the available test data clearly indicating that processing the rougher concentrate works as well as with cleaner concentrate, allowing ANV to forego the 10% gold recovery loss typical of the necessary cleaning flotation.

The company has its sights set now on processing 100% of the rougher concentrates into dore right at the mine site, bypassing the inferior profitability metrics of the original mine plan, which only targeted roughly 33% of the rougher concentrate and which was handicapped by having to sell the remainder to third party facilities for processing. Previous production from Hycroft under the prior ownership (from 1987 to 1998) totaled over a million ounces of gold via open-pit heap leaching and since ANV picked up the digs and restarted operations in 2008, the company has successfully sold more than 500k ounces of gold and another 2.2M ounces of silver. The company also just sold off their non-core Hasbrouck and Three Hills properties (Jan 27) for $30M to West Kirkland Mining, allowing ANV to put a laser-focus on Hycroft.

Further emphasizing a strong drive to advance the Hycroft Mine, ANV has now also tapped consultant for Hycroft over the past 8 months and 40-year PM industry veteran, Garry Keizer, a construction, engineering, process operations and project management wizard, for the VP of Capital Projects slot. Keizer comes to Allied Nevada hot from the GM position (engineering, procurement and construction management contracts) over at Hanlon Engineering and Architecture in Tucson. Keizer has certainly earned his scars in the industry, working across a variety of technical and managerial roles for such heavy hitters as Barrick, involved with several major billion dollar construction projects around the world like Pascua Lama ($3B) and the $5B Pueblo Barrick/Goldcorp JV, Pueblo Viejo.

More info on Allied Nevada Gold Corp. can be had at www.AlliedNevada.com

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