Laurion Mineral Exploration Provides Corporate Update on Environmental Permitting and Ore Sorting Analysis

Laurion Mineral Exploration Inc. provided an update on the environmental permitting and ore sorting analysis at its 100% wholly owned  Ishkoday property in northwestern Ontario, 56 kilometres west of Geraldton, and just 10 kilometres north of the Trans-Canada highway No. 11 along Provincial Road 801.

Laurion is well funded and continues to advance the Ishkoday Project. Laurion will commence its 2023 field work program at the end of May consisting of stripping and channel sampling  of existing and new gold bearing veins to outline wide gold bearing stockworks, together with structural mapping to better define the mineralization controls of orogenic type mineralization.

Laurion has completed over two years of environmental baseline studies, including surface water, groundwater and biological studies. The corporation has initiated work required to apply for environmental permits in support of the advanced exploration Ishkoday Shaft project, which currently entails dewatering an existing shaft for access and exploration purposes and treating the dewatering output to acceptable limits prior to discharge. 

Permits are required from the provincial government of Ontario, and include a mine closure plan, permit to take water and environmental compliance approvals. The Mine Closure Plan will require Laurion to describe rehabilitation measures that are to take place, and to post financial assurance for the rehabilitation work prior to commencing advanced exploration. 

The Permit to Take Water and Environmental Compliance Approvals, obtained through the Ontario Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks, are required to allow for dewatering and treatment activities.

Consultation regarding Laurion 's plans and permits with its Indigenous partners and stakeholders have been initiated and will be ongoing throughout the permitting, exploration and closure phases. 

Blue Heron Environmental is coordinating the baseline studies and will lead the permitting efforts for advanced exploration. Phase.

"We are excited to be at the forefront of this project and continuing to work with Laurion and their partners to initiate Advanced Exploration at the Ishkoday site!" said Linda Byron, Director at Blue Heron. 

Ore Sorting Analysis
The Saskatchewan Research Council recently completed test work on samples from Laurion’s Ishkoday property, in Q1 2023 using a two-tonne sample of 20-60 mm sized material sourced from the stockpile to simulate a sensor-based sorting operation and develop a sorting algorithm for future pilot plant work. 

The results of the test work demonstrated that the SBS laser and color sorting methods were successful in removing a significant proportion of vein host rock while still efficiently recovering small, fragmented quartz particles that are often associated with gold. Specifically, the SBS laser threshold setting could remove an estimated 92.6% of host rock (compared to vein material), while the SBS color and optical tests removed an estimated 89.6% of host rock, with efficient recovery of the quartz fragments oftentimes associated with gold.

SRC recommended that pilot plant testing be completed on Ishkoday material using the sorting algorithm to economically validate the use of sorting technology. These promising results suggest that SBS could be a valuable tool for improving the efficiency and profitability of gold extraction processes.

The objective of ore sorting is to reduce handling costs and increase gold grades of ore sent for processing.

Corporate Update
Considering its re-evaluation of the Ishkoday Project and consequent enhanced interpreted potential of the Sturgeon River Mine area management and the technical team have decided to focus on completing additional surface work and drilling in the shaft and stockpiles associated with the historical Sturgeon mine, prior to committing the capital necessary to process the stockpile resources. Notwithstanding the foregoing, environmental permitting will continue as planned.

Laurion’s 2023 field work will focus on those areas where there is potential for a sufficient concentration/density of the several well-mineralized veins. Given insights derived from the recent breakthrough exploration work, the area within the western sector of the Ishkoday Project, and particularly the area between the historical Sturgeon River and Brenbar Mines, is of marked interest. 

The historic Sturgeon River Mine data further suggests that mineralization may be more extensive at depth and along strike, which could potentially generate feed for future operations.

It is anticipated that processing of the surface ore-bearing stockpiles will facilitate the mineral characterization representative of the host rock mineralized trends, simultaneous with evaluation and development of the 'proximal mine' gold mineralization within 1 km of the stockpiles.

For further information, please see the Corporation's National Instrument 43-101-compliant Technical Report entitled "Technical Report on the Resource Estimate on the Sturgeon River Mine Waste Pile and Tailings, Ishkoday Property, Northern Ontario", dated June 7, 2013, which is available on SEDAR, as well as the Corporation's news release dated April 23, 2013. 

For further information: LAURION Mineral Exploration Inc., Cynthia Le Sueur-Aquin - President and CEO, Tel: 1-705-788-9186, Fax: 1-705-805-9256
  
Website: http://www.LAURION.ca

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Tags: Northern Ontario / Exploration / Gold / All Articles