Further Metallurgical Results From Pedra Branca PGE Project

VANCOUVER - ValOre Metals Corp. reported preliminary metallurgical results for cyanide leach and Falcon Ultra-Fine (UF) testwork for ValOre’s 100%-owned Pedra Branca Platinum Group Element (PGE) Project in northeastern Brazil.

“We are extremely pleased with both the high palladium recoveries achieved with cyanidation tests and the gravity concentration tests which showed more than 80% of the platinum recovered in 32% of the mass,” said Chairman and CEO, Jim Paterson. “These favorable and complimentary results significantly increase the optionality related to future development of the Pedra Branca project and they provide real impetus for ValOre to continue to perform tests to optimize conditions and improve metallurgical recoveries.”

Highlights from Cyanide Leach and Falcon UF Gravity Tests at Pedra Branca: Hot cyanide metallurgical test recoveries of 84.4%, 88.5% and 91.7% palladium (“Pd”) were achieved; Falcon UF gravity test work was very effective at concentrating platinum (“Pt”) with 73.3% Pt recovered in only 9.6% of the mass and 82.6% Pt recovered in 32.1% of the mass; and Falcon UF gravity concentration may serve to optimize conditions required for the Platsol™ process by favorably rejecting acid-consuming minerals, and consequently, three subsequent Platsol™ optimization tests have been initiated.

Palladium and platinum are readily soluble in a cyanide leach solution under certain chemical conditions. To assess the potential of cyanide leaching as a means to recover PGEs at Pedra Branca, three initial 48-hour hot cyanide leach tests were conducted. These tests were conducted on: 1) composite drill core sample from the Curiu 2PGE+Au deposit (100,000oz at 1.93 g 2PGE+Au/t); 2) an outcrop sample from the Trapia 2PGE+Au deposit (219,000oz at 1.19 g 2PGE+Au/t); and 3) tailings material collected from the first Falcon UF Gravity Concentrator test. Recoveries of 84.4%, 88.5% and 91.7% Pd were achieved in 48-hour leach experiments.

Given the strong performance of Pt concentration in the G1 test, a subsequent round of Falcon UF concentration testwork (G2) was performed, aimed at further improving recoveries by a sequential coarse-to-fine grind. G2 was designed to examine the response of coarsely ground (~100 µm P80) material to standard gravity recovery techniques (Wilfley table), followed by fine grinding of the tailing (P80 = ~20 µm) and processing at high G-Force with the Falcon UF test procedure. This assumes that the PGEs were predominantly associated with chromite and that coarse chromite may concentrate somewhat efficiently relative to the lighter matrix minerals.

Platinum once again responded well to the combined Wilfley + Falcon UF process, with 76.4% recovered in 30.6% of the mass (Wilfley concentrate + Falcon pass 1 concentrate), and 86.9% recovered in 56.1% of the mass in the combined Wilfley + 4 pass Falcon concentrate. Palladium showed a slight improvement to G1 results, but required a higher mass pull, with recovery curves flattening at ~30% mass pull. The Wilfley stage did not show a marked improvement on G1 results.

The strong performance of Pt in both the G1 and G2 Falcon UF gravity tests, combined with strong leachability of Pd seen in the three cyanidation tests presents two highly complementary processes to concentrate and recover Pd and Pt at Pedra Branca. High-priority follow-up testwork is planned to further optimize conditions and improve metallurgical recoveries.