Gold Ore Processing CIL CIP CCD Gravity

[Sideliner]

Since I'm stuck on the sidelines, could any of you bright minds share some of your problems and curiosites with me?
For example, did you ever have your recovery drop to say,
50%, over one night? Or,are all the new process instrument toys (and software)covering all the bases?(Or,are there
grimlins in the system.....a mind of its own and you can't
get into the proprietary software?) Or, are you guys really
gonna stick to that party line that all the metallics leach
within 48 hours? Let's rally. Sideliner

 

[Backfill]

Sideliner,
I'm not a cook, so don't have personal experience of a 50% drop in recovery.

On the other hand, there was a reasonably famous gold circumstance where recovery went from mid fifties to low nineties in roughly eighteen hours. That was the residence time in a CIL circuit where the mill quit running a refractory/oxide blend and went to oxide only. Heck of thing when you run a process with the ore for which it was designed... .

On the flotation side, if you gangue up your circuit, yeah, I imagine you could really tank your recovery, and do so quickly. Check out a Taggart or Peele for some historical review. More recently, try Doug Halbe's 'Plant Operators' Forum' (SME, 1998).

As a recovering geologist, I always suspect the mill feed when these problems occur. Mill superintendents like that view, though the culprits actually may be in the 'cooking,' where there are so many mechanical and chemical variables which all have to be working properly for high recovery.

What is your ore and process? For that matter, what is your waste or country rock?

Good luck, pard.

 

[Sideliner]

Dear Mr. Backfill,

I can say from experience, from time to time the
geo's get ripped off for grade. Watch those fine
gentlemen at the mill! They'll say "not so" with
a straight face! Sideliner

 

[Backfill]

Sideliner,
Yeah, that's why we call'em mill slimes...

 

[Sideliner]

Dear Mr. Backfill,

Ok, time to start a bruhaha. Is there any of you
Geo's out there got the guts to set the gold industry
straight? Although carlin trend host rocks (as I recall)are silicate and carbonate based (sedimentary? and some metamorphic?), the common black gold ores there contain sooty coal type carbons, graphites and sulfides. As an ore, the processing industry glibly describes these gold ores as "carbonaceous." Refer to the proper geological term dictionary and I am confident that you will find the term "carboniferous" most appropriate to describe that component of the black carlin trend ores which is both the auriferous constituent and elementally carbon based.(Don't
forget humic and folic acids.)
Hey Backfill, sick some "mill slimes" on me at this site so
I can do some slime talk with them. Then, you can jump back
in and insult all of us at the same time! Sideliner Met.