Predicting Gravity Separation Gold Recoveries

A.R Laplante; McGill University, Montreal
F. Woodcock
M. Noaparast

May 12th, 2000

Predicting the gold recovery of a gravity circuit is, at best, a difficult task. A very expensive alternative is to treat a large sample (typically >10 tonnes) in a pilot plant having a flowsheet similar to the one projected. However, even this approach is difficult when only part of an actual plants recycling load is to be bled and fed into a gravity unit such as a Knelson Concentrator (KC).

The operation of a pilot plant may not only be prohibitive because of the high cost, but there also may be insufficient sample available. A second approach (used for retrofits) consists of inserting a small-capacity unit into the existing circuit (typically a circulating load) and using the data obtained to predict the gold recovery (Ounpuu, 1992). The difficulty in this approach is again tied to the nature of the circulating load, which never reaches the appropriate steady-state.

In this report, an approach based on population-balance modeling is presented. The laboratory and/or plant data required for the model are reviewed, and case studies are given. Weaknesses of the approach are also evaluated.

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