Key Highlights

  • 89.9% gold extraction achieved after 24 hours in a conventional cyanide bottle-roll test at P80 75 µm, with 88.1% extraction at 48 hours
  • Low reagent consumptions of 0.374 kg/t sodium cyanide and 0.239 kg/t lime over the 48-hour test, indicating favourable leach chemistry
  • Significant gold upgrading through Falcon gravity concentration, with individual concentrate grades calculated at approximately 29 to 66 g/t Au
  • Results are from a composite sample from the historic Pilot mine mullock dump and represent the company's first metallurgical testwork at the project

Right Resources Limited (ASX:RRE) has reported positive preliminary metallurgical testwork results at its Pilot Gold Project in New South Wales, marking the company's first formal assessment of how gold-bearing material from the site responds to processing. Testing was conducted by Fremantle Metallurgy on a composite sample collected from the historic Pilot mine mullock dump, with conventional cyanide leaching achieving 89.9% gold extraction after 24 hours.

The Pilot Gold Project is located on tenement EL9449, approximately 20 kilometres south-east of Tumbarumba in the Snowy Mountains region of New South Wales. The company has been systematically exploring a 2.4 by 2.9 kilometre area using surface mapping, geophysics and diamond drilling programs completed in the first half of 2026. The company interprets the system as a Reduced Intrusion-Related Gold System, a deposit classification associated with gold mineralisation closely linked to granitic intrusions.

Understanding the Leach Test Results

The cyanide bottle-roll test was conducted on a composite granodiorite-tonalite sample at a grind size of P80 75 micrometres — a standard particle size used in gold leach assessments. The 89.9% extraction rate at 24 hours indicates that nearly nine-tenths of the contained gold dissolved under laboratory conditions using a well-established processing method. The slight decrease to 88.1% at 48 hours is not unusual and can reflect the re-adsorption of gold onto fine particles during extended leach times.

Reagent consumption figures are considered encouraging. The test used 0.374 kg/t of sodium cyanide and 0.239 kg/t of lime over the 48-hour period. Lower reagent consumption generally suggests a less complex ore chemistry, which can translate to lower processing costs at commercial scale, though laboratory results do not establish operating economics.

Gravity Concentration Adds Another Data Point

Falcon gravity concentration testing demonstrated meaningful gold upgrading, with individual concentrate grades calculated at approximately 29 to 66 grams per tonne of gold. The wide range across individual concentrates also raised a flag that the company intends to investigate further — preliminary results suggest a potential coarse-gold component, with observable differences between smaller-sample assays and the larger gravity test.

Further work is planned to determine whether coarse or unevenly distributed gold in the sample is affecting grade estimates. This so-called coarse gold effect can complicate both resource estimation and metallurgical planning, and resolving its extent is an important next step.

Sector Context

Conventional cyanide leaching remains the dominant gold processing technique globally for oxide and transitional ores, and a favourable leach response at the early testwork stage is a meaningful positive signal for a project's development pathway. However, the company has noted explicitly that results from a surface mullock dump sample do not establish commercial-scale gold recovery or project Economics — a distinction that is important for investors assessing the state of the project.

The Pilot Gold Project is at an early stage of evaluation, with the mullock dump testwork representing a preliminary study of accessible surface material rather than a definitive assessment of the in-situ resource.

Risks and What to Watch

The immediate technical risk centres on the coarse gold question. If the project does host a significant coarse gold component, conventional leaching and standard sampling methods may understate or misrepresent grade in ways that affect resource models and flowsheet design. Further metallurgical variability testing across different material types from the broader project area will also be needed before any economic conclusions can be drawn.

Upcoming catalysts include additional work to investigate gold deportment and reconcile the gravity testwork results, along with further diamond drilling at the project to define in-situ gold content beyond the mullock dump sample.