Beaconsfield Bacox Plant

A Bacox gold bioleaching plant, designed to treat 70 tonnes per day of a refractory pyrite-arsenopyrite concentrate, was commissioned at the Tasmania Mine (formerly the Beaconsfield Gold Mine) in Tasmania, Australia in 1999. Near-complete oxidation of the sulfides results in a gold extraction in excess of 95 per cent.
History and background
The Tasmania Mine is situated in the small town of Beaconsfield, in the Tamar Valley of northern Tasmania, close to the city of Launceston. This mine, previously known as the Beaconsfield Gold Mine, produced gold between 1879 and 1914, prior to being shut down. Redevelopment began is the 1980s, and mining of the Tasmania Reef, which is a gold-bearing quartz-carbonate-sulfide vein, commenced in the late 1990s. The sulfides are predominantly pyrite with lesser arsenopyrite, and also minor copper as chalcopyrite. The gold is refractory in nature, requiring a pre-oxidation step to liberate the gold enclosed in the sulfide minerals. The absence of the need for pH control, which minimises iron and arsenic precipitation in the leach and which, in turn, maximises the solids mass loss over the bioleach process. Minimising precipitation further reduces the chances of gold losses due to encapsulation in iron-arsenic precipitates. The mass loss results in a substantial upgrading of gold in the oxidised residue. This in turn results in a higher gold tenor in the cyanide-leach circuit, minimising the size of this circuit.

Process selection and plant design

The Bacox bioleaching technology was selected for the pre-oxidation step, as it was considered the best available for the treatment of the Beaconsfield concentrate. Factors that were considered included:

A mesophilic bacterial culture was chosen for use in the Beaconsfield plant, primarily because of its proven track record for operation at a low pH level and in the presence of a high iron concentration, which was an important design requirement for the Beaconsfield plant. Prior to execution of a detailed engineering design of the Bacox process, a metallurgical test work programme was completed to

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provide a basis for establishing the process design criteria. Batch and continuous test work confirmed that gold extractions in excess of 95 % could be achieved in a residence time of around 5 days. The Beaconsfield Bacox plant was successfully commissioned between 1999 and 2000. The Bacox process showed itself to be robust and able to withstand several process perturbations that persisted through the commissioning period and

beyond. In addition, the bacterial culture performed well under the relatively extreme conditions of low pH and high iron and arsenic concentrations that were experienced. The Tasmania Mine is currently owned and operated by BCD Resources, and the Bacox plant is still in operation today. Between September 1999 and 31 March 2011, the mine produced 860,609 oz of gold from 2.4 million tonnes of milled ore.

Reference
NEALE, J.W., PINCHES, A., And DEEPLAUL, V. Mintek-Bactechs bacterial oxidation technology for refractory gold concentrates: Beaconsfield and beyond. J. S.Afr. Inst. Min. Metall., vol. 100, no. 7. 2000. pp. 415421.

The Beaconsfield Bacox reactors these tanks have a process volume of 370 m3

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