OPERATION FOCUS- GOLDPLAT_proof 25/05/2016 07:23 Page 2
OPERATION FOCUS
GPL UG mill – mill maintenance at GPL
Kisbey-Green. The recovery plant comprises
industry standard processing technology
including crushers, mills, CIL, James tables and a
newly installed elution plant combined with
flotation, rotary kilns and fluid-bed incinerators.
In a significant upgrade to capabilities, in
November 2015 the first of the 4 t elution
columns acquired from DRD Gold was
successfully commissioned at GPL. Two other 4 t
elution columns were also purchased from DRD
Gold, with one likely to be moved to the
company’s gold recovery operation in Ghana
during 2016.
Kisbey-Green
noted at the time:
“The increase in
our elution
capacity to an
average daily
throughput rate of
8 t/d supports
Goldplat’s strategy
to capture more of
the gold recovery
value chain inhouse and
completes another
significant capital
project.”
The recently
installed 4 t elution
column continues to operate at capacity with
improvements being made on a continual basis
providing greater flexibility and capacity to
procure and process material.
A new wood chip wash plant was
commissioned last year and has allowed for an
additional 2 kg/month of gold production from
the extensive existing wood chip stockpiles.
The company explains that “exposure to the
gold price can be managed through adjusting
purchasing contracts in line with the current gold
price and by management of gold sales.
Processing costs remain exposed to inflation and
need to be managed and controlled to maintain
margins.”
This January, GPL defined a significant JORC
Resource at its Tailings Storage Facility (TSF) of
1.43 Mt of material at a grade of 1.78 g/t. This is
estimated to contain 82,000 oz of gold, 216,000
oz of silver and 193,000 lb of uranium. Work is
underway to determine the optimal production
and processing methods to get the maximum
value out of this resource.
The TSF re-processing project is progressing
well with a focus during the March quarter on
test work in metallurgical recovery optimisation.
Due to the complexity of the metallurgical
research work, it is expected to be completed
towards the end of May 2016, following which
economic assessment, design, production and
processing plans will be undertaken.
GPL operates from a 22 ha site giving it plenty
of storage stockpile area. After testing to
establish assay, moisture content, recoverability
and size, GPL purchases the materials from the
mine operator.
Production is scheduled to make the most
efficient use of the materials taking into account
the ore grade and anticipated recovery factors.
Raw materials are blended and routed to the
various plants in an effort to ensure that
production levels are reasonably consistent from
month to month. In some cases, similar material
can be treated in different plants. The wide
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