The work, part of the company's planned strategy for the first half of this year, will be optimised via the Re-2OX process and will also recover other metals such as cobalt, nickel and copper.

Under the plan, the stamp mill coarse tailings from early 20th century mining at Castle will be processed underground in a wide-open area on the first level near the shaft. The first-level stopes will be completely cleaned out and backfilled with tailings waste from the concentrate that is created underground.

"It will be used as a template…for similar initiatives in Gowganda and elsewhere in the broader region where innovative approaches to decades-old tailings issues can deliver important environmental solutions as well as potential business growth opportunities," the company said.

Canada Cobalt has acquired Mineral Technologies gravity separation spiral concentrators for test work at Castle, and is being undertaken to complete a flow sheet for a 600t/d tailings pilot plant.

"The tailings ‘problem' in Northeast Ontario's historic silver-cobalt mining district is really a tailings ‘opportunity', and our intention is to capture that opportunity," president and CEO Frank Basa said.

"We've been a leader on multiple fronts in this district. We look forward to working closely with our First Nation partners and the Ministry of Mines to implement a tailings programme at Castle that can be a model for similar initiatives in the Gowganda Camp and elsewhere throughout the region from the town of Cobalt to Silver Centre."

Canada Cobalt is completing the work under an exploration permit amendment with the Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and Mines. Based on historical records and just-received results from SGS Lakefield, a gravity concentrate from the tailings has estimated grading of 389g/t silver, 0.63g/t gold and 0.20% cobalt.