NTGS is investigating the potential for processing tailings and other legacy mine waste for critical minerals with a focus on the historic Pine Creek mining region.
The Mine Waste Transformation through Characterisation (MIWATCH) research group, part of the Sustainable Minerals Institute, University of Queensland was commissioned by NTGS to characterise mine waste at selected sites for secondary prospectivity for critical minerals. This project forms part of the Geoscience Australia led National Atlas of Mine Waste.
NTGS Record 2024-006 Assessment of mine waste secondary prospectivity: Cosmo, Northern Territory is a first-pass characterisation of mine waste at the Cosmo mine site 50 km northwest of Pine Creek to assess the potential for secondary critical metals endowment. This study revealed anomalous concentrations of critical and precious metals, including silver, gold, and arsenic. The mineralogy of the waste rock is dominated by quartz, illite/muscovite, and pyrite, with pyrite and pyrrhotite identified as the main hosts for these metals. Suggested recovery methods include flotation, gravity separation, cyanidation leaching, and bioleaching.
This Record complements other mine waste characterisation studies on Mount Bonnie–Iron Blow and Brocks Creek in the Pine Creek region, with the aim of identifying new mining opportunities in active and abandoned mines, and providing a baseline for future, more extensive mine waste studies.
Download the newly released record on Cosmo through GEMIS.