A gold metallurgical plant processes raw ore which contains 40% gold by mass. Th

Question

A gold metallurgical plant processes raw ore which contains 40% gold by mass. The plant runs at its design capacity of 2000 kg ore/day. The primary processing unit recovers 600 kg/day of pure gold, but a considerable amount of gold remains in the primary tailings (the waste stream). Asecondary processing unit uses the primary tailings as a feed, and it recovers 75% of the gold. The pure gold from the primary and secondary processing units are combined and shipped to the customer. The waste from the secondary processing unit (secondary tailings) is sent to a storage pond.

a. How much gold is sent to the customer per day?

b. What is the mass flow of secondary tailings sent to the storage pond?

c. The company wants to determine if the tailings should be treated any further. What is the concentration of gold in secondary tailings?

Explanation / Answer

Here for a gold metallurgical plant we have,

Quantity of ore processed per day, Q= 2000 Mg

Concentration of gold in ore = 40%

Recovery of gold in primary processing unit= 600 Kg/day

Recovery percentage of gold in secondary proccesing unit= 75%

a.) Total quantity of gold in 2000 Kg ore = 0.4*2000Kg= 800 Kg

Gold present in tailing from primary proccesing unit = (800-600) per 1400 Kg ore.

Total quantity of gold recovered in secondary process = 0.75*200 Kg

150 Kg

Gold sent to customers per day= 600+150 = 750 Kg

b.)

Mass flow of secondary tailing sent to storage pond =(2000-750)Kg per day = 1250 Kg per day.

c.)

Gold remaining in the secondary tailing =800-750 = 50 Kg

Total mass flow = 1250 Kg

Concentration of gold in secondary tailing = 50/1250 = 0.04 or 4%.

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