JOHN MACK AND CO

GOLDEN VALLEY MINE

P.BAG 704, KADOMA

PLANT APPRECIATION REPORT.

NAME: ZEFENIA GWERU
Golden valley mine plant flow chat

CRUSHING
 The ore which is delivered at the grizzely is of different sizes,
some sizes are not workable and some are fine.
 Crushing is the process of reducing the size of the ore to near
uniform sizes for storage and milling.
 The ore undergoes size reduction via the conveyor belts from
the grizzely. In the pathway, electro-magnets are used to
separate wires from the ore.

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  The magnets are also used to retrieve washers installed by
geological samplers during the course of sampling. Crushing is
completed in stages.
STAGE 1
 From the grizzely the ore passes through the vibrating screen
where ore of 50mm diameter passes through and ore of much
greater sizes proceeds into the Jaw Crusher where it is further
crushed to smaller sizes
STAGE 2
 The ore passes through the vibrating screen 2 via the
conveyor belt 2.
 Ore of 20mm diameter passes through the screen and the ore
greater than 20mm proceeds to the Simon Crusher 1 (coarse
crusher) where it is further crushed into smaller grain sizes.
STAGE 3
 The ore passes through the vibrating screen 3 via conveyor
belt 3, the ore of -12mm diameter passes through the screen
and of diameter +12m proceeds into Simon Crusher 2 (fine
crusher).
 The ore that passes through the screen fills the bank.
STAGE 4
 The ore from the bank is fed to the Fine Ore Bins via conveyor
belt 4.
 During this phase the has diameter greater than is fed back to
the Simon Crusher via conveyor belt 5.
Fine ore bin 1 has capacity of 200 tonnes and fine ore bin 2 has a
capacity of 150 tonnes.

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 CRUSHING FLOW CHAT

ROM grizzle screen 140x160mm 40mm vibrating screen

20mm Cone
screen crusher
CVR#1
CVR#2 CVR#3

CVR#4 s double deck

12mm
14mm

CVR#5
Cone
crusher

Surge
MVT bin
CVR#6 40ton
Fine ore

250t
150t

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MILLING
 This is a process whereby the crushed ore is further downsized
using ball mills to very fine sizes of approximately less than 75
microns.
 During the course of milling gold is also retrieved using the
gravimetric process where it retrieved due to its high specific
gravity.
 The ore to be milled comes from the fine ore bins, then sent
into the ball mills via a conveyor belt.
 The milled ore is pumped to sieve bends where the of 3mm
passes through sieves and then collected for the Knelson
concentrator 1, where the gold is collected in the Knelson
concentrator by means of gravimetric separation.
 The bypass, ore greater than 3mm is fed to the cyclones
where it is classified by grain sizes where the fine material,
overflow, is pumped to thickeners, while the underflow is
pumped to ball mill 2 (7x6) for regrinding to the suiting sizes
for processing.
 The process is equally the same for the dump, only that the
ore is fed to different ball mills to avoid dilution, avoid
sampling errors.
 Milling is the final stage of comminution.
 The purpose is to reduce the particle of size of ore such that
the mineral and gangue particles can be economically
separated. In gold leach plants, it is also carried out to
increase the surface area of the gold to increase leaching rate.
 At GVM, the particle size of -4mm and -75µm is required for

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 gravity concentration and leaching respectively.
 Milling produces close sized product. Insufficient grinding
results in a coarse product, thus a low degree of liberation for
economic separation by the concentrator.
 Over-grinding on the other hand reduces the size of the
subsequently liberated gangue and of the mineral value to a
size below that required for good separation.
 Milling is performed in ball mills, rotating cylindrical steel
vessels, which are charged with a grinding medium, balls of
different sizes free to move inside the mill thus grinding ore
particles.
 The motion is imparted by rotation of the mill shell.
 The ore particles are grinded due to different forces in the mill.
Impact or compression occurs due to forces applied normally
to the particle surface, abrasion takes place due to forces
acting parallel to the particle surface and chipping occurs due
to oblique forces.
 When the mill is rotated, the mixture of the ore, grinding
medium and water is mixed.
 The grinding medium is lifted along the rising side of the mill
when the mill is rotated.
 The medium is lifted until a position of dynamic equilibrium is
attained when the loose bodies cascade and cataract on the
surface of the other loose bodies down to the toe of the mill.
The diagram below shows the motion inside the tumbling mill.

Milling flow sheet

250t Fine ore bin

Water

Ball mill
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ACACIA.
 The acacia is the plant where the gold recovered through
sieve bends, through the Knelson concentrator is put under
cyanidation, to put the gold into solution for the retrieval of
gold in solid form through electro-whining.
Period: 12hours
 Reagents: 820 litres of water, cyanide and caustic soda.
 The reagents are checked through the mimic, that is their
quantity, and closely monitored.

GRAVITY CONCENTRATION
 From sieve bend one, the pulp was subject to gravity
concentration by the Knelson Concentrators.
 Gravity concentration refers to the separation of minerals
with different specific gravity by their relative movement in
response to gravity (Wills, 2006).
 Gravity concentration methods are most effective when
there is a significant difference in specific gravity between
the mineral and gangue.
 At GVM the particles screened for gravity concentration were
+4mm. However, close size control of feeds to gravity
processes is required in order to reduce the size effect and
make the relative motion of the particles specific gravity
dependent (Wills, 2006).
 GVM has 2 Knelson concentrators and Knelson 1is fed from
8x12 ball mill whilst Knelson 2 is fed from 6x12 regrind ball
mills.

Operation of a Knelson Concentrator

 The feed to the Knelson concentrator was maintained at a pulp

density of 70- 76 % by solids. The feed tube directed the feed
into the rotating concentrating cone. The concentrators were
equipped with a filter for filtering fluidizing water which was
pumped from the water storage tanks.

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  The water gauges before and after the filter were supposed to
have a pressure above 40 psi and a bowl fluidization pressure
which ranged between 9–10 psi.
 The concentration cycle time for the Knelson Concentrators
was set at 90 minutes.
 When the concentrate cycle was complete, concentrates were
flushed from the cone into the concentrate box.

Electro-wining
 Gold is recovered in solid form from the gold solution through
electrolytic deposition.
 A direct current is applied in an electrolytic cell, causing gold
to deposit on the cathode as a pure metal.
 The process of electro-whining is also used to extract the gold
from acacia plant, where the gold retrieved is from the
Knelson concentrators.
 When the adsorbed gold is removed, carbons are sent
heating, where they are activated, that is open the pore
spaces for the commencement of the CIP process

LEACHING
 Leaching is a hydrometallurgical process that involves contacting
ore with an aqueous solution of a leaching agent in order to
dissolve the value mineral
 The dissolution of gold from its solid ore into the solution in the
presence of cyanide , oxygen at 13-15ppm at optimum pH
conditions of above 11,5
 Thickener underflow from the trammel screen went to the first
leach tank.
 This is done by using reagents that favour dissolution of gold
into solution. The overflow that has been sent from the
cyclones is delivered to the thickeners, where the process
starts.
 In thickeners a flocculant is added, this is a reagent used to
remove suspended solids from a liquid or wastewater by
aggregating them into larger clusters or clumps, flocs that can
be easily removed or settled out of the liquid.
 The flocs are sent to the leach tanks via a pump. The water
that will have filled the thickener tanks is then pumped to
storage tanks for repurpose.

CARBON IN PULP

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  Carbon in pulp, is a process whereby the gold in solution is
retrieved through trapping it using carbons.
 This process was used through the use of three CIP tanks for
the ore extracted underground.
 As for the dump retreated, leaching happens simultaneously
with the carbon in pulp process.
CIP Tanks at GVM.
 CIP 1: It contains heads that is the carbon that has trapped
the gold in solution. Its capacity is 135m 3. The volume of the
carbon is dependent on the volume of the tank.
 CIP 2: it contains the tails the carbon with which has no or
little gold trapped.
 CIP 3: it contains tails, these are the carbons that are barren.
 At the CIP sampling is carried out to investigate:
1. The carbon activity: the capability of the carbon to trap gold in
solution
2. The amount of carbon that is in the system, that is in the tank.
3. In CIP 1 tank, 70ml of carbon is added every day to maintain the
carbon levels.
 The 70ml volume is the apparent volume where the actual
volume which should be in the tank is calculated using the
following formula;
True Volume of Carbon in the Tank = Ca ml/4dips x SG x VO
Where:
Ca ml-: the apparent volume of carbon
4dips-: the number of dips made when collecting the carbon
SG -: Specific Gravity of the carbon
VO -: Volume of the tank
 For DRP, the process of sampling is the same as for samples
that are collected for underground tanks.
 Samples are collected and taken for assaying (samples taken
are carbons from CIP tanks) these samples are used to
investigate carbon activity.

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ELUTION
 It is the removal adsorbed material from an adsorbent by
washing it with a solvent.
 Gold is stripped from activated carbon that has absorbed it
from processed ore.
 Elution temperatures: 95-104℃
 Reagents:50kg Caustic Soda, 20kg Cyanide
 Period: 48hrs. Maximum time for gold in the system to be
retrieved that is the gold in solution.
Pickling.
 The carbons from CIP are treated with dilute hydrochloric acid
solution to remove impurities like calcium and magnesium
carbonate.
Elution.
 Carbons are placed in an elution column, and a hot solution of
sodium hydroxide (caustic soda) and sodium cyanide. The
solution breaks the bond between gold and carbon atoms
releasing the gold back into solution.
.