Black Canyon Delivers 41% Manganese Product in Pilot-Scale Testing of Wandanya Ore

Black Canyon (ASX: BCA) has generated high-quality manganese products with high recoveries from pilot-scale dense media separation (DMS) beneficiation on drill core from its Wandanya project in Western Australia.

The company conducted large-scale metallurgical testing on two 100-kilogram composite samples collected along the 3-kilometre base case zone of mineralisation that is currently the target of the company’s resource development activities.

The tests delivered a Blend 1 feed grade of 32.4% manganese upgraded to 41% at a 2.8 grams per cubic centimetre density comparable to industry standards.

Blend 2 delivered 29.4% upgraded to 38.5% at the same density.

Total manganese recoveries for both blends ranged between 80% and 82% with low penalty elements associated with the beneficiated products.

Staged Testing Program

The DMS work follows an initial Stage 1 screen/assay program, Stage 2 sighter level heavy liquid separation (HLS), and Stage 3 blend feed HLS applied to low, medium, and high-grade feeds from multiple PQ3 diamond drill core composites.

All tests demonstrated the amenability of Wandanya mineralisation to produce an overall product specification with low impurities and high recoveries.

The company believes the potential exists to further improve recoveries through the additional processing of fines.

Results will be used to inform an upcoming scoping study and direct shipping ore (DSO) strategy for the project.

Improved Project Knowledge

Managing director Brendan Cummins said the completion of DMS testing improved the knowledge of Wandanya’s grade-recovery characteristics ahead of the planned scoping study.

“The pilot scale test work has confirmed the Wandanya manganese feeds can be beneficiated to a high-grade product using simple dense media processing—a key milestone achievement for Wandanya and the company’s ambition to develop the project,” he said.

“Subject to the results of a mineral resource estimate, we will be able to apply these grade and recovery outcomes to a scoping study to examine the development of a dual-commodity operation consisting of DSO iron, DSO manganese, and beneficiated manganese.”

Black Canyon has commenced its Exploration Incentive Scheme co-funded detailed gravity survey at Wandanya to test for deeper manganese targets, and is awaiting assays from the completed resource definition drilling program.

The maiden Mineral Resource Estimate is on track for September 2026, with inputs including LIDAR, DGPS collar pickups, and down hole density surveys in the process of being collated, and the Scoping Study is scheduled for completion in Q4 2026.