Great Western Mining Corporation (GWMO) has reported highly encouraging initial metallurgical results from its Defender Tungsten Project in Nevada, with test work recovering 92.98% of the tungsten from pre-treated material.
Bench-scale flotation testing by Eriez Flotation Division upgraded a representative bulk sample from a head grade of 0.35% tungsten trioxide to a rougher concentrate grading 7.21% tungsten trioxide.
The results indicate that Defender mineralisation is amenable to established flotation methods and compare favourably with similar rougher test work conducted on other regional skarn-hosted tungsten projects.
The 750 kg bulk sample was collected from mineralised material across about 1 kilometre of strike between the Defender, Dough God and Pine Crow mines. An initial sulphide flotation stage removed contaminants while retaining 99.46% of the tungsten in the main stream.
The subsequent tungsten flotation stage recovered 92.98% of the remaining tungsten while pulling just 4.55% of the total mass, producing what Great Western described as a clean, low-volume rougher concentrate.
Further metallurgical work will focus on cleaner circuit optimisation to increase the concentrate grade towards potential marketable product specifications. Eriez will also assess whether a mild regrind stage could improve mineral liberation ahead of the cleaning cells.
Great Western’s CEO Ed Loye said: “These preliminary results represent an excellent early milestone for Defender. Upgrading our 0.35% WO₃ bulk sample to a 7.21% WO₃ rougher concentrate while maintaining 93% recovery is a very encouraging result. This confirms that our metallurgical model is highly responsive right out of the gate. Additionally, very low levels of deleterious elements such as molybdenum were recorded, which is important as these can hinder further purification steps.
“We have established a remarkably clean, low-volume rougher concentrate that serves as the perfect springboard for our next phase of metallurgical test work.”
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The strong initial recovery rate provides an encouraging technical foundation for Defender. Further optimisation will now determine how effectively Great Western can raise concentrate grades towards a potentially marketable tungsten product.