Awalé Resources Limited has reported metallurgical testwork results for its Odienné Gold-Copper Project in Côte d'Ivoire, achieving gold extractions ranging from 91.0% to 98.2% across the BBM, Charger, and Empire deposits. The results surpass recovery assumptions from the project's May 2026 Mineral Resource Estimate.

The testwork program, managed by Bara Consulting Limited and conducted by Alfred H. Knight Mineral Processing UK Ltd, tested ten zone composites blended into three deposit composites and a project composite. The findings provide baseline processing inputs for a Preliminary Economic Assessment targeted for delivery in the third quarter of 2026.

At the BBM deposit, whole-ore cyanidation yielded 91.0% gold recovery, exceeding the 86.0% assumption in the initial Mineral Resource Estimate. Introducing a gravity circuit and a copper pre-float ahead of leaching lifted gold extraction to 93.7% while recovering 92.3% of the copper into a potentially saleable concentrate. Notably, these results were achieved on composite material grading 0.90 g/t gold, which sits below the 1.16 g/t gold average grade of the BBM resource.

The metallurgy testwork at Odienné has returned better than expected results. Every deposit exceeded the recovery we assumed in our resource estimate and did so on a simple, conventional flowsheet with no surprises.

— Andrew Chubb, President and CEO of Awalé Resources

The Charger deposit returned 97.0% gold extraction via whole-ore cyanidation, improving upon the 91.4% recovery assumed in the resource estimate. Testing indicated that Charger gold is coarse, with grain sizes of 294 µm in the high-quartz zone and 134 µm in the high-actinolite zone, with 99.2% to 99.9% reporting as microscopic gold.

Empire delivered the highest recovery of the three locations, achieving 97.8% gold extraction through whole-ore cyanidation and rising to 98.2% using bulk sulphide flotation with cyanidation of concentrate and tailings, surpassing the 94.1% recovery assumed in the resource model. Empire material also recorded a Bond ball mill work index of 10.3 kWh/t and three-stage gravity recoverable gold of 70.2%.

Read the full announcement: Awalé Reports Gold Recoveries of up to 98% at Odienné on Simple, Conventional Metallurgy