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Magic2000

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09/02/24

04:32

Post #: 72315184
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Originally posted by danbradster: ↑

I was doing a bit of reading about agglomerated heap leach.

Regular heap leach - small particles can block up the spaces between the big ones (illustration below), and then you can imagine how the acid solution would not flow well through that. The solution might form little pathways through the small particles, and continue taking that path, ignoring other areas.

Agglomerated heap leach - a cement-type medium is applied to form the particles into more uniform sized balls (rocks as illustration). The solution will flow more uniformly over them. I think the cement medium can even be impregnated with the acid during agglomeration, to jump start the leaching.

So you can imagine how the recovery would be higher - less opportunity for parts of the heap to be missed by the acid.

The cement balls are a bit like this.

Though - agglomeration is most beneficial for ore with high clay content or small particles (as these 2 are most likely to cause issues for regular heap leach). Does Korbel match that description? I guess that's a basic thing that management would have considered before even mentioning agglomeration.

So if agglomeration heap leach is well suited to Korbel, I think it means:

- Add 1 main step to the heap leach process - add an agglomeration drum before the heap.
- If the balls can be impregnated during agglomeration, then I imagine the cycle time for leaching might be quicker. Apparently that's right: "Based on the industrial data, the permeability in the agglomerated heaps could improve by 10–100 times, the leaching time could shorten by 1/3–1/2 times, the acid consumption could reduce by 20–30%, and the Cu extraction rate could increase by 10–30%."
- Recoveries might jump from 60% to 75%? (I forget if the company gave more specific numbers) That's a 25% boost to revenue (vs the economics of regular heap leach), with minimal increase in cost. Mining costs are the same, and operating costs of an agglomeration drum should be low.

Heap leach seems to be re-entering the company plans, as there seems to be 2 ways it can benefit the plans:

1. Lower CAPEX start-up at Korbel. Still need high investment in mining equipment (Korbel being bulk size), but lower investment in the plant.
2. Or changing Korbel's sorting grade from 1g/t to 6g/t. Process the 6g/t in a small plant, then heap leach the 80% (?) that gets rejected by the sorters.

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NVA Price at posting: 27.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
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