Southern Palladium has reported positive metallurgical test work for its Bengwenyama PGM project in South Africa, showing a material increase in chromite concentrate recoveries to 65% compared with 30% assumed in the optimised pre-feasibility study (OPFS).
The UG2 reef—a chromitite layer within the Bushveld Igneous Complex that hosts both platinum group metals and chromite—is the primary mineralised horizon at Bengwenyama.
The test work, conducted on a 160.6 kg UG2 composite sample from 12 drill holes, returned a 3E (platinum, palladium, gold) grade of 7.36 g/t with a chromite grade of 28.92%, confirming the high-grade nature of the mineral resource.
A key finding is that a coarser grind (20% passing 75 microns) achieved 65% chromite recovery at a grade of 39.6%, compared with 46% recovery from a finer grind.
The improved recovery has a materially positive impact on project revenues, with chrome contributing 12% of revenue in the OPFS.
The test work also confirmed that dense media separation (DMS) can effectively remove a significant proportion of waste rock, reducing the size of the downstream mill-float circuit.
Non-mineralised footwall waste rejection reached 99.6% at a DMS density of 3.4.
Company managing director Johan Odendaal said the results reinforce confidence in the robustness of the orebody and show material upside to high-grade chrome production and improved PGM recoveries.
A DMS circuit, not included in the OPFS flowsheet, will now be incorporated into the definitive feasibility study (DFS).
Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor-In-Chief, Rough & Polished
