Black Canyon (ASX: BCA) Advances Manganese Concentrate Production with Positive Testwork Results

Highlights

• Work is progressing to begin production of beneficiated Mn concentrate feedstock from the KR1 and KR2 deposits for upscaled HPMSM hydrometallurgical testwork.
• BCA has completed metallurgical sample preparation on 400kg of RC drill chip samples from the KR1 and KR2 MRE zones.
• The results highlight HLS work produced Mn concentrate grades between 30.2% Mn and 37.4% Mn from KR1 samples.
• The company is currently exploring and testing potential sites for a downstream manganese processing facility.

ASX-listed manganese explorer Black Canyon Limited (ASX: BCA) is steering forth work to begin production of beneficiated manganese concentrate feedstock from its two 100% owned KR1 and KR2 deposits for upscaled HPMSM hydrometallurgical testwork. It continues to discover substantial mineral resources that can be developed to produce Mn concentrates for alloying in the steel industry as well as downstream HPMSM processing.

Metallurgical sample results for KR1 and KR2
The company has completed metallurgical sample preparation on 400kg of RC drill chip samples from the KR1 and KR2 MRE zones that were collected last year.

The results highlight heavy liquid separation (HLS) work produced Mn concentrates grades between 30.2% Mn and 37.4% Mn at corresponding heavy liquid specific gravity between 3.0 and 3.4 from KR1. The HLS work produced Mn concentrates grades between 29.2% Mn and 35.3% Mn at corresponding heavy liquid specific gravity between 3.0 and 3.4 from KR2. Wifley tabling testwork on fines delivered Mn concentrates graded between 29.9% Mn and 37.1% Mn from KR1.

The results confirm previous testwork that targeted a 30% Mn to 33% Mn concentrate using density-based separation as the primary beneficiating technique. These new results reflect upon the potential to produce a higher than target grade product between 35% Mn and 37% Mn from the coarser fraction.

Now, BCA will hold the next phase of testwork to choose a preferred target separation density media prior to applying this to a larger scale Dense Media Separation (DMS) test on the +5mm-3.35mm KR1 and KR2 products.

Downstream Processing Site Location Evaluation
The company is currently exploring and testing potential sites from Western Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania for a downstream manganese processing facility.

It is pursuing an option in Australia to be compliant with the IRA tax credit subsidies, proximity to Asian based customers and State and Federal Government Funding initiatives particularly built for critical minerals projects.

Meanwhile, the company continues to engage with end users interested in manganese products.

BCA shares traded at AU$0.100 apiece on 26 March 2024.