Gold and Silver recovery from tailing updates

[kjavanb123]

Finally some good news about tailing.

My Chinese friend has responded with the results from flotation and gravity for tailing samples which was sent to him.

1. flotation didn't work since the tailing has been sitting outside for a long time and became oxided.
2. Gravity test went well, getting >100grams/ton concentrate is no problem. According to its test, shows 3-5ppm Au, and 50ppm Ag in tailing. He also send me a gravity concentrate plant design including a mixer tank, spiral chute, and 3 centrifugal concentrator whick would lead to >80% recovery. Total cost $21200 for a 20tons per day processing plant. Then I can either sell the gold and silver concentrate to refinaries or do it myself which i prefer the later. Any ideas for getting the precious metals from >100grams/ton concentrates?

Still awaiting for head assay and size disturbution results from Met Solve Labs in Canada to see if it matches the Chinese company results. Then proceed.

Keep you guys posted.
Kevin

 

[kjavanb123]

ok

now that we can produce 80ppm Au and 1337ppm Ag concentrate by processing 20tons of tailing residue, then how can we turn that concentrate into pure gold without using cyanide? according to our calculation processing 20tons tailing using gravity circuit would produce 675kg of 80ppm and 1337ppm Ag concentrate. what would be the best ways to recover pure gold and silver from the concentrates?

Thanks
Kevin

 

[4metals]

Correct me if I'm doing this wrong but you will concentrate 20 tons of material and collect 675 kilograms of material that assays 80 ppm Gold and 1337 ppm of silver. So 80mg = .08 grams X 675 = 54 grams of gold which is 1.73 ounces of gold (value $1730) plus silver at 1.337grams X 675 = 902 grams which is 29 ounces of silver (value $464)

Before refining costs you will generate this concentrate daily with a value of $2194. What will it cost you to run this material through the concentrator? Did you buy or have available an excavating machine, is that included in your $21,200 concentrating cost? How many tons of material are to be processed? How did you assure yourself that the material you sampled represented the entire pile?

I understand fuel is cheap over there, as is labor I would assume, but what do you figure your operating costs will be?

 

[kjavanb123]

Hi

Total cost for 20tons to be removed from the tailing and be processed right now is around $1200. This include removal transportation to plant, and processing. Now i like to know the cheapest non-chemical process that doesn't involve cyanide leaching to get the pure gold and silver.

Thanks

 

[Gold]

Not to rain on your parade, but i think you are really making it more difficult for your yourself than has to be. I don’t understand why you don't want to use chemicals. You said it came from an old copper processor ( I'm not sure ) . Do you have a report on the chemical composition of the material ? You seem to want to make as much as possible. If it's loaded with copper then it may be worth more than the gold in the long run. Gold may wind up being your secondary by product. This would change the whole way you need to look at processing the material. Your not worried about the epa there because you don't have one then i would just build me some big ass vats from wood ( Cheap ). Mop them down with some tar, ( Cheap ) invest in some Cyanide and zinc ( Cheap ) and Run baby Run. That's as cheap as you can get to make your proffits.

Why not Chemicals :?:

How much material are we talking about ?

 

[4metals]

Do you know the other metals in the ore? What is the composition of the roughly 3/4 of a ton of ore (concentrate) that is holding the gold and silver? From what you've said so far cyanide may be the affordable way to concentrate it further. Are there restrictions in Pakistan concerning either obtaining or using cyanide?

 

[Gold]

The place where your getting the tailings from, Is the place closed down or still active ? Can you set up and work on site there ?

 

[kjavanb123]

Not to rain on your parade, but i think you are really making it more difficult for your yourself than has to be. I don’t understand why you don't want to use chemicals. You said it came from an old copper processor ( I'm not sure ) . Do you have a report on the chemical composition of the material ? You seem to want to make as much as possible. If it's loaded with copper then it may be worth more than the gold in the long run. Gold may wind up being your secondary by product. This would change the whole way you need to look at processing the material. Your not worried about the epa there because you don't have one then i would just build me some big ass vats from wood ( Cheap ). Mop them down with some tar, ( Cheap ) invest in some Cyanide and zinc ( Cheap ) and Run baby Run. That's as cheap as you can get to make your proffits.

Why not Chemicals :?:

How much material are we talking about ?

Hi there,
The tailing is from a copper flotation process, and according to Chinese company it has mostly iron pyrite, and 0.02% of the composite tailing sample contained copper, so no copper in it. 3ppm Au and 50ppm Ag. I am getting the XRF and more head assay from Met Solve labs in Canada soon.

So you are saying I can just dissolve the 675kg concentrate into tar or zinc sulphide to get the pure gold and silver? how much chemical needed to dissolve 675kg? I would think at least a ton is required?

Thanks
Kev

 

[kjavanb123]

Do you know the other metals in the ore? What is the composition of the roughly 3/4 of a ton of ore (concentrate) that is holding the gold and silver? From what you've said so far cyanide may be the affordable way to concentrate it further. Are there restrictions in Pakistan concerning either obtaining or using cyanide?

There are restriction in using cyanide in here which are pain in the neck to go through. Since the final product is only over half a ton everyday there is gotta be a faster way to process that into pure silver and gold at the end of day.

 

[kjavanb123]

The place where your getting the tailings from, Is the place closed down or still active ? Can you set up and work on site there ?

Yes it is active right now, but that at least 4 million tons of it still sitting out there. I rather to set up the gravity operation in like 50km nearby city.

 

[4metals]

You say you are an American yet your English leaves me to wonder. Not that it matters either way. You say you are trucking this material 50 kilometers to a city from the site? That has to be eating into your costs. If your material is mostly iron pyrite and it the gold is in fact at the concentrations you have stated you will be well served by investigating some leach techniques before you break the bank on a concentrating plant. Your material does not yield its gold and silver quickly or easily yet you continue to expect it will. Considering the numbers you have stated so far, there is a large payout in metals potentially in that pile. Looking at this issue from another direction, there is a reason that the pile is still there. Think about it!

 

[Gold]

Do you know the other metals in the ore? What is the composition of the roughly 3/4 of a ton of ore (concentrate) that is holding the gold and silver? From what you've said so far cyanide may be the affordable way to concentrate it further. Are there restrictions in Pakistan concerning either obtaining or using cyanide?

There are restriction in using cyanide in here which are pain in the neck to go through. Since the final product is only over half a ton everyday there is gotta be a faster way to process that into pure silver and gold at the end of day.

They don't have a problem with you putting all that lead and pollution into the air, but they regulate the Cyanide ?

Go Figure.

 

[kjavanb123]

well spending 2 yrs here talking to all Pakistanis here would rough up your English too , transportation cost is $4/ton for 50km, vs $15/ton if I were doing the operation in major cities. But I got the results from Met Solve Labs in Canada who cliams size by size analysis and head assay shows only 0.11ppm Au and 4.5ppm Ag. Makes me wonder how the Chinese company got their results.

and as for lead or cyanide, gov here shuts down the plant that uses lead and smelt the gold, but cyanide under control is ok.

Right now i am just confused which way to lean.Canada or China.

 

[qst42know]

Perhaps it's just me but the Chinese company has equipment to sell.

With an equipment sale in the balance it is conceivable that any sample sent to them may have show values from their tests.

If your sampling methods were sound and you thoroughly mixed and split the same batch to send to these labs, I would trust the tests from the lab that does only testing.

 

[kjavanb123]

then how do u explain this?

 

[qst42know]

Sampling is a science in itself.

If you did nothing to ensure a truly representative sample of the whole quantity each individual test would give different results.

PPM estimates are meaningless if you did not sample properly.

http://www.mine-engineer.com/mining/sample_1.htm

 

[kjavanb123]

I did sampling per instruction, in a matrix 10 meter apart, dig a hole 20cm and grabbed a fist from the bottom of hole and bagged it, then combine all 54 samples to get 15kg samples which 4kg was sent to China, 9kg sent to Canada.

Interesting thing the Chinese company responded after I showed them results from Canada, and said they got 80ppm Au in concentrate from "vision and experience". interesting.

I am still looking to this. One question though, when you drop a pregnant lead into warm AR, the yellowish smoke comes out then after all the reaction stopped at the bottom of jar you see some dark-brownish particles those are gold right? Just curios.

 

[Platdigger]

Most likely not. If there was available AR left after the lead was disoved, it would disolve any gold also.

I think you could be waisting your time on this Kevin.

Unless you could heap leach the whole pile were it is. And had the equipment and money to do so..........

even then there may not be enough gold to make it pay.
Randy

 

[ILikeBoats]

I understand that mercury is dangerous, however, would a closed-loop system where you cause the mercury to go into vapor, but capture that vapor and condense it to use again to capture more gold, be workable? Would avoid the use of cyanide, right?

 

[Harold_V]

I understand that mercury is dangerous, however, would a closed-loop system where you cause the mercury to go into vapor, but capture that vapor and condense it to use again to capture more gold, be workable?

That's normally how it is handled, so, yes, the idea is workable, but there is always risk when dealing with mercury. It is tightly regulated, so investigate the ramifications of using it in your processing. It could prove troublesome.

Would avoid the use of cyanide, right?

Not necessarily. Depends a great deal on the ore. There are occurrences of gold that won't amalgamate. I've dealt with one of them. I had planned to use mercury, but it was useless for my application. There are also instances where cyanide isn't the answer. it excels with oxidized ores, especially when the gold is microscopic. It would not be a good choice for recovering large particles.

I feel it's safe to say that each case is its own. None of the acceptable methods work across the board for all ores.

Harold