:: Gold Processing Trials Check Out for Novo

In another innovative approach to extracting gold from its emerging Egina project near Port Hedland, WA, Novo Resources has conducted successful trials that beneficiated gold nuggets from waste rock using an eddy current separator, or “ECS”, in Germany.

The preliminary test results showed that the ECS could directly extract gold nuggets ranging in size from 1mm to 10mm from waste gravels in samples and required no water for processing. ECS technology is just one of several dry ore sorting and separation techniques being employed by the company to recover gold from its expansive Egina terrace gravels, which are replete with nuggets. ECS is commonly used in the recycling industry to recover selected metals based on their subtle magnetic properties.

Materials are fed into it via a conveyor and an internal, adjustable high-powered magnet rotating at very high speeds generates strong magnetic fields that effectively repel non-magnetic metals such as gold nuggets. The sampled materials were sourced from the Egina project and the ECS was able to divide the gold separately from the waste products.

Gold at Egina is predominantly in the form of free nuggets, which are generally coarse and exceeding 1mm, which presents an opportunity for Novo to explore various technologies to separate the precious yellow metal from the waste.

In addition to the ECS technology, the company also used mechanical ore sorting technology to separate small nuggets near 1mm in size using an electromagnetic sensor, which consistently detected the gold according to management, opening up another pathway for processing at Egina.