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Company Q&A: Bullabulling Gold "very pleased" with test results

Last updated: 08:15 26 Mar 2014 EDT, First published: 09:15 26 Mar 2014 EDT

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Bullabulling Gold (LON:BGL, ASX:BAB) recently posted results from preliminary metallurgical test-work that could reduce costs and enhance recoveries at its flagship project in Australia. Proactive Investors (PI) caught up with managing director Brett Lambert (BL) to discuss the details and to find out where the firm goes from here.

PI: This report is part of the definitive feasibility study -  the DFS. What are the details that investors need to know?

BL: Yes, it’s part of the DFS that's underway on the project. The first elements of that have involved us going through the prefeasibility study (PFS) and looking at areas where we can optimise performance. We began that process last year, looking at the mining side of the operation and we've more recently switched across to look at processing. 

In the first instance, we’ve looked at the big ticket items and a major component of our processing costs is the cyanide and lime consumed in the gold processing.

This release details some of the preliminary work we've done to see if we can reduce the consumption levels, and we're certainly very pleased with the outcome of the preliminary results that suggest a significant reduction in the usage of those two.

PI: The water treatment process is a little unusual, isn't it?

BL: Yes, that's right. Our basic treatment process for recovering the gold is with carbon  leach, which is very standard and used in nearly all gold mines globally these days. What we're looking at is seeing if we can improve the leach conditions within the circuit by improving the water quality.  

The technology we've been focusing on there is nanofiltration, which in itself isn't a new technology, it's been around since the 1980s, but it’s not commonly used, certainly within the Western Australian minerals industry.

That is to a large part due to the fact that many operations have very hypersaline water and it’s unsuitable. One of the advantages Bullabulling have is that its water quality is naturally better than the average in the goldfields of Western Australia.

PI: Where do you now go from this point? What do investors need to know about some of the milestones you're looking at achieving?

BL: The next stage for us is to do the more detailed metallurgical test work that will hopefully validate the previous results and better quantify the benefits for us. 

Then we'll continue on with the rest of the DFS, which will involve some infill drilling of the resource to get it all to reserve status, which we hope to release by third quarter, and then go on to the detailed engineering and re-costing of the capital and have the definitive feasibility wrapped up by the end of this year, all going well.

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