Winshear Metals has announced positive results from initial metallurgical testwork on mineralisation from the Rodburn Target at its Portsoy Project in north-east Scotland, UK.
Carried out by Blue Coast Research from British Columbia, Canada, the programme was overseen by Rob Thorpe, vice-president of innovation and technology, and project metallurgist Tony Tran.
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The metallurgical tests used a combined sample of massive to disseminate sulphide mineralisation collected from drilling carried out in 2023 and 2024.
This work aimed to assess whether the material could be processed by standard sequential flotation to yield copper and nickel concentrates that could be sold.
The composite samples returned head assays of 0.82% copper, 1.64% nickel (including 1.38% nickel in sulphide form) and 0.11% cobalt.
Batch testing indicated copper recoveries of 75–80% and nickel recoveries in the range of 60–65%.
Further testing, such as locked-cycle studies, is expected to improve these recovery rates.
The processing produced nickel concentrates with grades between 14% and 16%, containing more than 1% cobalt.
Blue Coast Research described such material as “highly attractive to nickel smelters”.
The nickel concentrate also contained 0.54% copper, which would be payable under standard terms.
Copper concentrates with grades around 25% and nickel content below 1% were also produced.
The nickel level in the copper concentrate was reported to be lower than typical penalty charge thresholds.
Winshear CEO Richard Williams said: “These are very positive results at this stage of the Portsoy Project. It was key for us to understand the metallurgical characteristics of the mineralisation, and to ensure the recoverability of the copper, nickel and cobalt and the quality of the concentrates produced at an early stage.
“The results provide confidence that the Rodburn mineralisation can be processed using conventional methods, with the potential to produce saleable copper and nickel concentrates, supporting the case for further optimisation testwork as the project advances.”
