Gravity Concentration at The Telfer and New Celebration Gold Mines
S.Gregory, P.Gelfi and V. Martins - Telfer Gold Mine / R. Dunne - Newcrest Metallurgical Services / A. Goulsbra - New Celebration Gold Mine
Presented at: Randol Gold Forum 96, Resort at Squaw Creek - Olympic Valley, California, USA - April 21-24, 1996
September 2nd, 1998
When the Telfer mine first started in the early 80's a gravity circuit was incorporated. This helped reduce gold inventory in traps, reduced solution losses and reduced metal load in the Merrill Crowe circuit.
When a new mill was added in 1986 a spirals circuit was included in the design. The new mill gravity circuit went through many incarnations including the use of jigs, spirals, a Warman strake and Johnson barrels. In Oct. 1994 the Denver jig, Warman strake and Johnson barrel in the No 1 mill were replaced by a Knelson 30" Concentrator. In June of 1995 the No 2 mill spirals circuit was replaced with two 30" Knelson Concentrators.
"The successful changeover to a single Knelson Concentrator on the No 1 milling circuit with its concomitant simplicity of operation was not lost on the metallurgical staff at Telfer. The labour intensive maintenance of the spirals, requiring regular cleaning with acid to remove carbonate scale, even though scale inhibitor was added, was costly. Considerable problems were also experienced with spiral feed blockage when the screen ahead of the spirals started to wear. It was not long before an economic justification was put forward to replace the spirals with two 30 inch Knelsons."
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