The company said two different sensors adequately recognised the six mineralogical facies associated with Chimo mineralisation and dynamic calibration tests of the sorter with a moving conveyor made it possible to sort samples of each. The sensors used were a RGB [red, green, blue] camera using the optical properties of reflection, brightness and transparency to locate quartz and silica, and an XRT sensor using the volumetric property of atomic density to locate arsenopyrite.

Testwork was performed on six mineralogical facies: gold-bearing quartz veins, gold-bearing silica, high-grade gold-bearing arsenopyrite, medium-grade gold-bearing arsenopyrite, low-grade gold-bearing arsenopyrite and mafic waste rock.

Testwork concentrated 99.1% of the gold contained in 44.4% by mass of material mass for a grade of 56.3g/t representing a 223% increase in gold content over sorter feed. Testwork on a 105.7kg production sample at an average grade of 2.16g/t separated 53.9% by mass of the material in the form of a preconcentrate at an average grade of 3.68g/t representing a 170% increase in the gold grade compared to the sorter feed.

Cartier said the ability to sort ore would increase the recovery rate at the mill, reduce transport costs to the mill, reduce milling costs, reduce the costs of environmental restoration of mine tailings and reduce the environmental footprint of mine tailings while increasing the social acceptability of mining project.

In March, Cartier updated its mineral resource at Chimo to an indicated resource of 6.6 million tonnes grading 3.21g/t for 684,000oz and an inferred resource of 15.2Mt grading 2.77g/t for 1.36Moz at a US$1,612/oz gold price.

Cartier has drilled 58,054m in 124 holes to date.

Shares in Cartier Resources are trading at C33c, valuing the company at $71 million.