Lundin Gold Inc. announced results from its comprehensive metallurgical testwork program on the Fruta del Norte (FDN) project. Based on the results of the recently completed metallurgical programs, the company has confirmed the Gravity Float Leach (GFL) flowsheet for the Fruta del Norte project. Gold recovery ranges from 91.7% to 94.2% with approximately 30% on average into doré with the remaining 70% into a final concentrate that ranges from 136.7 to 240.0 g/t Au (and 169.5 to 234.1 g/t Ag) resulting in the plant design criteria of 200 g/t Au (and 183 g/t Ag) over the life-of-mine.

In addition, the results indicated that the concentrate produced will be readily saleable with impurities at controlled levels. Further testwork is expected to yield further optimization of these results. During 2015, Lundin Gold completed a metallurgical drilling program at the Fruta del Norte project comprised of five drill holes that spatially represented the orebody.

The metallurgical testwork through a gravity, flotation and cyanide leach (GFL) circuit consisted of two testwork programs, the variability program and the composite program, both of which were carried out at the SGS Telcahuano Lab in Santiago, Chile under the supervision of Amec Foster Wheeler. The variability program consisted of 25 variability samples which were chosen to represent all lithologies, and cover a range of grades of gold, silver, sulphur, mercury and arsenic. The composite samples were selected to cover the first three years, the mid years and the latter years of mine production.

The grades and metal contents of the composite samples were aligned to the production plan. The global recoveries for gold from the variability program ranges from 82.4% to 97.8% with the 90th percentile of results from the 25 variability samples above 89.1% and the average recovery of 92%.