Geometallurgy

Importance

The variability in gold recovery is a very important problem to study during the first steps of the project and even during the operation. Probably, the explanation of that problem for some plants is not well known and the problem has to be solved with valid criterions that were not considered during the design phase. For this reason is important to analyze all possible variables during the metallurgical testing program so that all possible variations can be analyzed. Basically, the idea is to predict the plant performance throughout the mine block model for the process selected.

For many years gold mining companies have overlooked the importance of geometallurgical modeling on the plant performance. Probably, when difficult gold ores start to appear, the concern on project evaluation and gold metallurgy change its direction. Essentially, the modeling is employed to manage any risk during the early steps of the project. The main risks are associated to economical evaluation, plant design, and forecasting production. Then, the importance of geometallurgical studies is important.

All this information must be used in the feasibility study, which follows a systematic evaluation of a specific gold project in order to determine the project for success. In this way, the feasibility study analyzes an idea based on the information provided by the analyst and measure the possible profitability of the project under economical, technical and financial aspects.