Right Resources clocks 90% gold recoveries in NSW met test

Right Resources has put some old-fashioned goldfield waste through a modern metallurgical workout and emerged with an encouraging result, extracting 89.9 per cent of the precious metal in just 24 hours from material collected at its Pilot gold project in southern New South Wales. The preliminary laboratory results have provided the company with its first indication that gold-bearing material from the historic mine may respond favourably to conventional processing methods, potentially simplifying the technical pathway should future exploration establish an economically viable deposit. Historical workings at Right Resources Pilot gold project in southern NSW. The testing, undertaken , involved a 29-kilogram composite sample collected from a mullock dump beside the old Pilot mine shaft, 20 kilometres southeast of Tumbarumba. Mullock is essentially rock discarded during historical mining operations, making the results particularly interesting given the material was never intended to be a modern processing feedstock. ‘Achieving 89.9% gold extraction after 24 hours and 88.1% after 48 hours using conventional cyanide leaching is an encouraging initial result for Pilot.’ Right Resources managing director Graham Howard Using a conventional cyanide bottle-roll test, the laboratory extracted 50.2 per cent of the gold within just two hours, climbing to 79.3 per cent after seven hours before hitting its hefty 89.9 per cent peak at the 24-hour mark. The final 48-hour extraction figure came in slightly lower at 88.1 per cent, with the laboratory flagging analytical variability or possible gold reabsorption . Importantly, the test also delivered relatively modest chemical consumption, using just 374 grams of sodium cyanide and 239 grams of lime per tonne of material over the 48-hour period. Low reagent consumption can be a valuable ingredient in the economics of a future gold operation, potentially helping keep processing costs under control. The company also put the material through a three-stage Falcon gravity separation process to concentrate heavier gold particles before chemical treatment. The exercise produced individual concentrates with calculated grades ranging from approximately 29 grams per tonne (g/t) to 66g/t gold, a substantial upgrade from the original sample’s roughly 0.7g/t to 0.8g/t gold. The results have raised the intriguing possibility that Pilot contains a coarse-gold component, although further laboratory work is needed to reconcile the results and establish reliable gravity recovery figures. Right Resources managing director Graham Howard said: “Achieving 89.9% gold extraction after 24 hours and 88.1% after 48 hours using conventional cyanide leaching is an encouraging initial result for Pilot, particularly alongside the low laboratory reagent consumption.” The company identified Pilot’s potential during exploration work in 2024 before making the historic goldfield the centrepiece of its successful $10 million ASX float in October 2025.