Sunrise Resources sends off bulk samples for commercial testing

The AIM-traded company kicked-off its first commercial-scale trials, mining 100 tons of natural pozzolan and eight tons or perlite.

Sunrise's perlite samples were now in transit to SGS Lakefield in Canada for crushing, grinding and screening with the objective to produce coarse horticultural grade raw perlite. The firm expects processing work to take approximately four weeks.

Elsewhere, Sunrise noted it had completed all of its internal mine planning work and has tapped international mine consultants SRK Consulting to provide final mine designs for inclusion in its permitting plan of operations and reclamation permit.

Whilst a substantially longer mine life is anticipated, Sunrise stated that an initial 15-year mine plan had been developed.

Patrick Cheetham, Sunrise's executive chairman, said: "This phase of bulk sampling marks an important transition from exploration, bench-scale testing and smaller scale customer trials to commercial-scale testing and market development. This is progressing hand-in-hand with mine design, plant design and mine permitting."

As of 0950 BST, Sunrise shares had jumped 7.74% to 0.17p.