Kogi Iron’s shares will look to trade higher after incorporating phosphorous bioleaching into the process plant design that is part of the ongoing Preliminary Feasibility Study for its wholly-owned Agbaja Iron Ore Project in Kogi State, Nigeria.
Notably, university testwork has demonstrated that simple bioleaching can reduce phosphorous levels in Agbaja iron ore to 0.25% from 0.9%, potentially increasing the price received for it.
Process design suggests bioleaching will have minimal impact on capital and operating costs while a specialist consultant is carrying out optimisation testwork.
Mr Iggy Tan MD said that “The Agbaja mineralisation has a number of unique characteristics, including the porosity of the iron bearing oolites, which makes the mineralisation amenable to bioleaching.”
“Bioleaching is used extensively in mineral processing and the potential to apply this simple, low cost processing method at Agbaja is an exciting development. The application of this beneficiation process will both broaden the market for the proposed Agbaja concentrate and importantly, increase the net price received. The key to taking full advantage of this opportunity is keeping the process simple which the team has certainly embraced.”
The proposed process design utilises simple bioleach holding ponds, with a nutrient rich aerated solution introduced from the base of the pond, percolating upwards through the iron ore concentration to the surface over time.
Concentrate from the processing plant will be pumped into one of eight holding ponds as iron rich slurry and the bacterial culture will be introduced together with the aerated nutrient solution.
Source – Proactive Investors
