Fuwan Property

Metallurgy

Minco Silver released the results of initial metallurgy testing on material representative of the mineralization at the Fuwan silver project on September 17, 2007. The work was carried out by Process Research Associates (PRA) of Vancouver and included options of gravity separation, cyanidation, and flotation. As a basis for the test work, 400 kilograms of representative material of the Fuwan deposit was taken from drill core and pulp rejects from the drill core to form three samples. These included a sample from Zone 1, a sample from Zone 2, and a composite sample prepared from Zone 1 and 2 samples.

Following a series of "open cycle" tests using different grind sizes and a variety of reagents, it was found that a simple flow sheet using conventional flotation and standard reagents provided encouraging recoveries. Subsequent "locked cycle" flotation tests on the composite sample have resulted in overall recoveries for silver from lead and zinc concentrates of 97.9%. In addition, good results were obtained for other contained metals with recoveries of 97.9% for zinc, 94.0% for lead, and 77.4% for gold.

Results of the Locked Cycle Test for the composite sample are as follows:

Composite Sample	Grades				Recoveries
	Au g/t	Ag g/t	Zn %	Pb %	Au %	Ag %	Zn %	Pb %
Head Grade	0.20	244.5	1.16	0.28	-	-	-	-
Lead Concentrate	2.6	9325.1	1.51	7.79	44.7	86.0	3.3	90.1
Zinc Concentrate	2.18	1,473.60	49.85	0.38	32.7	11.9	94.6	3.9
Total Recovery	-	-	-	-	77.4	97.9	97.9	94.0

Other results completed by PRA during the metallurgical testing included a determination of the Bond ball-mill index. Based on a closed screen size of 200 microns, this was calculated to be 17.8kWh/tonne. The Fuwan ore is therefore judged to be of average hardness.

View the Complete News Release

For further information, please see our 43-101 Technical Reports page and then follow the link to our NI 43-101 Technical Report dated October 23, 2009 and January 24th 2008.