Unico, Incorporated, a natural resource company in the precious metals mining sector, today announced that the company intends to add an additional step to the processing of gold (Au) and silver (Ag) at the mill and processing facility at the Deer Trail Mine in Marysvale, Utah.

Due to the industry-wide problem of securing refinery contracts for precious metal-bearing base metal concentrates that has developed since December 2008, Unico’s wholly owned Deer Trail Mining Company subsidiary has been diligently working to establish a new means to more directly bring its precious metals to market. The company’s metallurgical engineer has developed an economical solution, and engineering work is currently being conducted to finalize the design and blueprints. Once completed, the company expects to begin extracting silver and gold from its recently produced concentrate using an alternative processing method.

The final product is expected to consist of gold and silver bullion. Results of on-site metallurgical test work have led the company to pursue the alternative method of recovering the precious metals contained in the sulfide concentrate produced at the Deer Trail mill.

Since it began operating the flotation circuit at the Deer Trail mill facility, high recoveries for lead, zinc, silver and gold have been attained. However, due to the dramatic drop in base metal prices over the last six months, the company has shifted its focus to the production and sale of precious metals and plans to retain the base metals for recovery and sale once the market for these metals has rebounded.

Samples of the Deer Trail concentrate were also sent to an outside laboratory for leachablity test work. The results of the testing suggested that as much as 91% of the gold and 88% of the silver contained in the concentrate may be recovered quickly by leaching. The sample used in this test work represents an average of the concentrate product produced thus far in the floatation circuit at the Deer Trail Mill Facility. The results from the leaching process were verified by fire assay and yielded 0.43 oz/ton gold (Au) and 71 oz/ton silver (Ag). Further test work is currently underway using ionic resin in pulp and cementation to extract the precious metals from the ”PLS” pregnant leach solution.

“The shift toward the production of gold and silver is seen as the best strategy for the company to move forward due to the continued strength in gold and silver markets, and we look to add the additional step to our process as soon as possible,” commented Mark A. Lopez, chief executive officer of Unico, Inc. “We also look forward to announcing the results once the additional equipment is in operation.”

Unico’s wholly owned Deer Trail Mining Company subsidiary has explored different lixiative leaching technologies for the recovery of gold and silver from the company’s recently produced concentrates. Several tests have been conducted in the Deer Trail metallurgical facility to determine the economics of the use of cyanide, thiourea, and thiosulfate lixatives, each of which can be used as leaching agents for gold and silver.

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