Titan managing director, Bill Ryan, said the Mt Scholl project, located in Western Australia's Pilbara region, achieved nickel recoveries of 31.6% in the first two months employing its BioHeap process. This has since risen to 37%.
"BioHeap is in full operation and is proceeding well," Ryan said.
"Basically, BioHeap is a bacterial system to recover nickel and other base metals from low grade sulphide deposits in coarse crushed heaps."
Ryan said the target was to reach a 70% recovery rate in nine months.
Construction of the first trial heap of Mt Scholl ore, a nominal 5000 tonnes, and associated infrastructure and tankage was completed in the March quarter.
The first heap was fully inoculated with the oxidising bacteria during May.
Titan, through a 75% subsidiary, has sole access to a strain of bacteria with properties that make it suitable for the treatment of base metal sulphide ores.
Titan's BioHeap program to treat nickel and copper ores is well underway at its Radio Hill project, 35km south of Karratha, WA.
The Radio Hill mine continued at full capacity in the June quarter, producing 11,912t of nickel concentrate containing 1258t of nickel metal, which was delivered to Western Mining Corporation's Kambalda smelter under an offtake agreement.
Despite the company's success at Radio Hill and the promise of BioHeap technology, Titan's share price has continued to languish at around 14c.
