Impact: Positive
Aston Minerals reported metallurgical test results from the Edleston Main resource zone at its 100%-owned Edleston Au project near Timmins, ON. Four individual composites were used for metallurgical head grades, gravity work and cyanide leaching. Recoveries from gravity and leach processing ranged between 89.1% and 93.3%, with head grades ranging between 0.92 g/t and 1.21 g/t Au. Testing has demonstrated that the gold within the deposit can be recovered through a conventional mill gravity circuit and a carbon in leach plant. In our view, these are good results that demonstrate strong recoveries with head grades around the current resource grade of 1.0 g/t Au (read note). However, as the development of the Edleston Main resource zone continues, we believe Aston is likely to continue considering the sale or spin out of its Au project. Management would then be able to shift focus to its Ni targets, including the Boomerang deposit, which is host to ~6.9B lb in NiEq resources (read note).