TodayNQ Minerals Plc (AQSE:NQMI, OTCQB:NQMLF, OTCQB:NQMIY) ("NQ" or the "Company") has announced that the average grade to date of 3.2 grams per tonne of gold has been returned from extensive surface stockpiles located on the Company's 100% owned Beaconsfield Gold Mine ("Beaconsfield") in Tasmania, Australia.
NQ Minerals Executive Director Roger Jackson says work is progressing at Beaconsfield with the refurbishment of Beaconsfield's 350,000 tonne per year capacity gold processing plant well underway.
"Our geological team is examining the multiple surface tailings stockpiles within the Beaconsfield mining lease to identify ore to be processed in the plant when it's up and running around the end of this year.
"We are really excited about the discovery of excellent gold grades in roughly 80,000 tonnes of surveyed stockpiles in the area called the historic Wetlands area, due east of the Beaconsfield townsite.
"To date, 105 samples taken from these stockpiles have returned an average gold grade of 3.2 grams per tonnes of gold." Mr Jackson said.
He added all the stockpiles will be sampled in the coming months to determine the full extent of the contained gold in this area.
"Initial metallurgical gold recovery test work indicates standard Carbon-in-Leach ("CIL") recoveries of between 83% - 90% can be achieved with relatively short processing times of less than 12 hours in the existing Beaconsfield plant.
"The material in the stockpiles does not require crushing or grinding due to its very fine composition and can be fed directly into the processing plant." Mr Jackson concluded.
NQ Mineral's Chairman, David Lenigas, said; "The revelation that significant gold exists in these stockpiles is a tremendous boost for the Company's Beaconsfield Gold Mine re-opening plans.
"Our engineers are now working on budgets and timelines to bring the Plant's CIL circuit back on-line as soon as possible to treat this material.
"These high-grade surface stockpiles are only a short trucking distance from the plant and will provide valuable low-cost high revenue plant feed much sooner than we originally envisaged.
"The removal of these stockpiles from the Wetlands area will also be the start of a process of rectifying a long standing environmental issue in the town by cleaning up old mine waste placed in this area over the last 120 odd years and returning the area back to its natural pre-mining state."
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