Bushveld Minerals Limited provided a metallurgical testwork update on its iron ore project in Limpopo Province, South Africa. Recent results of Davis Tube tests on massive and disseminated iron ore zones of the PQ layer are reported. The positive drilling and metallurgical test results continue to reinforce the robustness and consistency of the iron ore mineralisation in both the P-Q zone and the Main Magnetite Layer.

In relation to the economics of the project, the high recovery levels at relatively coarse grinds for the massive and disseminated ores imply less intense power requirements to process these ores. Following preliminary Davis Tube Test testwork undertaken on the -75µm fraction, and preliminary Dense Medium Separation tests on coarse (-12mm and -6mm) fractions of the massive ore, follow-up Davis Tube Test investigations have been conducted on a range of size fractions for composited samples of both the massive and disseminated ores. Of the recovery/grade tests carried out on the six size fractions of the massive ore from -500µm to -38µm (in addition to the 12mm and 6mm fractions reported on by Bushveld Minerals in December 2012); the 500 µm fraction gives the best product grade/recovery results for all the important constituents of the ore.

This suggests that fine grinding of this ore will not be necessary. Recoveries and product grades of the -500µm concentrate show a significant improvement in the Fe recoveries over the -6mm and -12mm concentrates produced using dense media separation (DMS), as well as a significant reduction in the SiO2 and MgO grades of the concentrates. Recovery/grade tests on the disseminated ore carried out at various top sizes yielded positive results in all size fractions greater than 106 µm. The disseminated ore has lower recoveries, which may be expected owing to the fact that more of the iron may be incorporated in pyroxene and olivine in the disseminated ore.

Nonetheless, the grades of the disseminated concentrates compare favourably with those of the massive concentrates.