Arkadian Strategic Metals has announced that Phase 1 metallurgical testwork on an Aries bulk sample from its majority-owned Motzfeldt Critical Metals Project in Greenland has produced rare earth concentrates using established processing methods.
The AIM-listed strategic metals and gold explorer said a preliminary flotation test upgraded the feed from approximately 0.65% total rare earth oxides (TREO) to a concentrate grading 13.37% TREO, roughly twenty times the feed grade, at 20.3% TREO recovery from a single unoptimised stage.
A gravity separation test on the finer tested fraction produced a concentrate grading 2.24% TREO and 12.2% zirconium oxide, at recoveries of 39.9% and 59.1% respectively within that fraction.
The Aries deposit hosts a JORC-compliant Inferred Mineral Resource of 340 million tonnes, and demonstrating that the target minerals respond to conventional separation methods is a first step toward defining a processing route for a deposit of that scale.
Mineralogical analysis identified finer grinding as the main lever for raising recovery, prompting a Phase 2 programme that will combine finer grinding, enhanced gravity separation and refined flotation, and will also assess niobium and tantalum recovery alongside the rare earth and zirconium response already shown.
"For a deposit of Aries' scale, showing that the minerals respond to conventional separation is the essential first step towards a processing route, and that is what Phase 1 has given us," said George Frangeskides, Arkadian's executive chairman.
Welsh gold
At the company's 100%-owned Clogau-St David's Gold Mine in north Wales, Arkadian completed sampling of the Jack Williams vein at the western end of the historic Main Lode, collecting 29 samples for gold assays and thin section analysis to guide further underground targets.
The Clogau-St David's site is Britain's largest historic gold producer, with recorded production of at least 80,000 ounces within the Dolgellau Gold Belt, and Arkadian has been working to trace the Main Lode's westward continuity through the Jack Williams stope since access works there completed in August.
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Separately, systematic excavation of floor material around Shaft 2 on the Tyn y Cornel adit level has been completed, working east to west in one-metre-square sections to bedrock, yielding approximately 1.5 tonnes of material for processing through the company's pilot plant.
The work follows earlier hand-panning at the site that identified particles believed to be visible gold, pending independent verification.
Frangeskides said the Jack Williams samples "will tell us about the gold content and mineral textures at the western end of the Main Lode", while the Shaft 2 floor material "gives the pilot plant a substantial run on historic mine material", adding that the company expects to report on both as results come in.