Materials handling is an important part of the gold processing operation and is a primary consideration in the plant layout. A good and appropriate arrangement provides for ore receiving and stockpiling without interference with blending and other handling and mill feed operations. Plant supplies such as flotation reagents, cyanide, lime, sodium hydroxide, lead nitrate, hydrogen peroxide, etc., are received and stored as close to the reagent make-up or to other point of usage as possible. Special storage tanks are provided for acid and fuel oil.
Weather conditions determine the type of structure of the plant buildings and often the number of buildings. In the extreme cold of northern Canada or South America (near South Pole), most of the operations are enclosed in general purpose, well insulated, single buildings in order to conserve heat and avoid the necessity for personnel to go outside. In more temperate places much of the process equipment may be located outside; thickeners for example, having been operated successfully without total enclosure to as low as minus 25oC. Separate enclosures are often provided, nevertheless, to house controls, pumps and drives. A lack of housing or inappropriate housing with poor heating, lighting or ventilation may in some cases, lead to limited operator attention and hurried maintenance and may be a short-sighted economy. Dusty operations such as gold ore crushing, sampling and storage are usually isolated from the rest of mill operations. Service facilities, including maintenance, warehousing, general offices and laboratories are also separately housed at most plants. At remote plant locations it may be necessary to provide trailer sites, dormitories, transient quarters, cafeterias and recreational facilities for the labor force. Alternatively, buses may be employed to transport the workers from nearby towns with minimum number of personnel permanently located at the plant site.
Typical construction of extreme cold places