Savannah Goldfields (ASX:SVG) clocks 70% gold recovery and the flotation upside now writes itself

Historic tests hint at 97% recovery if a flotation circuit gets bolted onto the existing Georgetown plant

Metallurgy is where junior gold stories quietly live or die, and today Savannah Goldfields (ASX:SVG) gave investors a result that lands on the right side of that line. Test work on sulphide core from Electric Light and Red Dam returned total gold recoveries of 71.6% and 70.7% respectively through a gravity and cyanide flowsheet.

Importantly, those numbers were modelled on running the ore through the existing Georgetown Gold Processing Plant in its current configuration. No new circuit, no capex blowout, no waiting on a financing package to justify a redesign.

The Electric Light sample assayed at 3.0 g/t Au and Red Dam at 17.2 g/t Au, with the higher-grade Red Dam material recovering more gold through cyanide leaching of the gravity tails. Both results sit closely in line with historic test work from 2007 and 2013, which matters because it removes a layer of doubt about whether the sulphide ounces in the resource model are actually pourable.

The bigger prize, though, is buried in the back half of the announcement. Historic flotation tests pulled recoveries of 97.4% at Electric Light and 94.9% at Red Dam.

Why 70% recovery through the existing plant is the floor, not the ceiling

The headline result confirms Savannah can process Electric Light and Red Dam sulphides through the Georgetown Gold Processing Plant without modification and still recover more than 70% of the contained gold. For a small-cap with a producing plant already standing 30 km south, that is the cheapest possible route to first revenue from these deposits.

It also reframes the resource work we covered last year. Electric Light moved into the Indicated category for the first time at 46,000 ounces, and a mine plan is only as good as the recovery it assumes. A 70% recovery floor through existing infrastructure is the kind of number that lets a feasibility study actually start.

What makes this result useful rather than just adequate is the diagnostic leach work. The refractory gold sits mostly in arsenopyrite and carbonaceous material, both of which respond well to flotation. The lost ounces are not lost forever, they are simply waiting on a different circuit.

The flotation question is now the real investment debate

Historic test work by Metcom and Core Process Engineering returned flotation recoveries of 97.4% for Electric Light and 94.9% for Red Dam. Savannah is planning fresh flotation testing in 2026 to validate those numbers and assess the economics of adding a flotation plant to Georgetown.

The gap between 70% and 95% recovery is enormous in ounce terms, particularly when applied to the higher-grade Red Dam material. At a 17 g/t head grade, recovering an extra 25 percentage points of gold changes the project’s economics in a way no incremental drilling could.

We think this is the announcement’s true signal. Savannah has two viable processing routes now. The simple one works today. The better one requires capital, and the question for investors becomes whether the company can justify and finance that capital based on the resource base at hand.

The skeptical read worth holding alongside the recovery numbers

The composited sample weights were modest at roughly 42 kg per deposit, and the variance between submitted grade and assayed head grade was material at both sites. Savannah attributes this to coarse gold and compositing effects, which is plausible, but it does mean these recoveries should be confirmed at larger scale before being treated as bankable.

Worth noting too that the historic flotation results were generated by companies that never listed, never published the work, and never built the plant. The 97% number is a target, not a precedent. New test work in 2026 will either validate it or quietly recalibrate expectations.

The Investors Takeaway for Savannah Goldfields

Savannah has now de-risked the two questions that matter most for a small-cap with a plant and a growing resource base. The ounces are real and classified, and at least 70% of them can be recovered through existing infrastructure. That puts the company in a fundamentally different position than it was 12 months ago.

The 2026 flotation programme is now the catalyst worth watching. If it confirms the historic 95%-plus numbers, the investment case shifts from a marginal toll-treating story to a credible mid-tier processing hub for the Etheridge Goldfield. Investors can read our previous coverage of the Electric Light resource upgrade at stocksdownunder for the geology side of the story.

From here, the question is whether Savannah can move the conversation from recoveries to reserves, and from a flowsheet to a financing decision. The metallurgy just gave management permission to start that conversation.