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Lake Victoria Gold has confirmed gold recoveries of up to approximately 97 percent at its Imwelo Gold Project in northern Tanzania, results the company says significantly reduce the technical risk of advancing the fully permitted site toward production.
The metallurgical testwork, conducted by independent laboratory Nesch Mintec Tanzania Ltd. on drill core samples from Area C of the Imwelo project, found that the mineralization is largely free-milling. That means gold can be extracted using a conventional gravity and carbon-in-leach processing circuit, one of the most straightforward and widely deployed methods in the gold industry.
The specific numbers are notable. Bottle roll cyanide leaching tests returned recoveries of up to 96 to 97 percent. Gravity recoverable gold accounted for roughly 42 to 47 percent of the total, meaning a meaningful portion can be pulled out early in the processing sequence before cyanide leaching even begins. Diagnostic leach testing showed about 84 percent of the gold is directly cyanide-leachable, with only minor amounts locked in sulphide minerals or carbonaceous material.
What gives the company added confidence is consistency. The results closely match findings from three earlier metallurgical programs carried out at Imwelo in 2013, 2014 and 2017. The earlier work focused mainly on oxide material. This latest round was designed specifically to assess transitional and fresh sulphide rock from deeper in the planned mining sequence, and it came back with comparable recoveries.
"These metallurgical results represent an important milestone in advancing Imwelo toward production," said Marc Cernovitch, president and CEO of Lake Victoria Gold. "Deposits that combine simple metallurgy, strong gravity recovery, and high cyanide recoveries are widely recognized as among the most attractive development opportunities in the gold sector."
The testwork also included Bond Work Index determination, which returned approximately 22.9 kilowatt-hours per tonne. That figure indicates relatively hard rock, typical of Archean greenstone deposits in the Lake Victoria Goldfield, though the company says such values are common in the region and manageable within conventional milling circuits.
The Imwelo project sits about 12 kilometers west of AngloGold Ashanti's Geita Gold Mine, one of the most productive operations on the continent. Imwelo holds historical resource estimates and a 2021 pre-feasibility study, and it is fully permitted for mine construction and production.
Lake Victoria Gold is advancing the project with the backing of two significant partners. Barrick holds an equity stake in the company. Taifa Mining and Civils, the largest contract mining operator in Tanzania with a working history spanning De Beers, Barrick and AngloGold Ashanti, The Kenyan Wallstreet
