This will be the first on-site bulk test of EnviroLeach's cyanide-free technology.

It is a water-based process designed to dissolve gold into an aqueous solution with similar leach kinetics and economics to that of cyanide.

According to Golden Predator, initial laboratory, pilot-scale and production-scale testing was successfully conducted at EnviroLeach's facility in Surrey, British Columbia, prior to on-site testing at its own test processing plant in Yukon.

The Canadian junior's plant commenced operations in 2016 and is providing increased metallurgical and geological understanding of 3 Aces.

The company said it developed a mobile batch recovery unit for the recovery of gold from its sulphide concentrate; the EnviroLeach tech will be used in this ‘secondary recovery unit'. The initial 5 tonne bulk test will be conducted in phases.

Duane Nelson, president and CEO of EnviroLeach, said: "The gold recovery from Golden Predator's arsenopyrite concentrate confirms the ability of our new eco-friendly formula to extract gold into solution from sulphide ores and recover it using conventional technologies."

He also claimed that EnviroLeach was the only commercial-scale, economically viable and safe hydrometallurgical gold extraction process available.

Golden Predator CEO Janet Lee-Sheriff added: "The plant and SRU are examples of the continuing ways that Golden Predator works to be innovative, testing new methods that have the ability to change how we operate at projects like 3 Aces."