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BENEFITS REALISED FROM RETROFITTING A
GRAVITY GOLD RECOVERY CIRCUIT
AT
GOLD FIELDS TARKWA
Authors:
Henry Atakora, Metallurgy Manager, Gold Fields Ghana Ltd
Danny Hillier, Head of Metallurgy, Gold Fields Ltd
Andrew King, Principal Process Engineer, Consep Pty Ltd
Michael Fullam, Technical Director, Consep Pty Ltd
Juan Carrillo, Process Engineer, Consep Pty Ltd
THE TARKWA GRAVITY CIRCUIT STORY

o Metallurgical Testing
o Development of a Solution
o Prediction of Benefits
o Justification for CAPEX
o Measurement of Benefits
o Assessment of further
opportunities
 GLOBAL FOOTPRINT

Gold, Copper, Silver

 CONSEP PTY LTD
Award winning

Australian run and owned company

SYDNEY PERTH

VANCOUVER TORONTO

Consep - innovative engineering solutions

CONSEP PRODUCTS
Diverse range of products;
▪ Gravity Gold Recovery
o Consep Acacia
o Knelson Concentrators
o Vibrating Screens
o Electrowinning Cells
o Packaged Gravity Plants
▪ Sampling Equipment

…and more
 TARKWA PROCESSING PLANT
BRIEF HISTORY

• 1993 - Gold Fields bought Tarkwa heap leach gold project

• 2004 - 4.2 Mtpa capacity CIL plant commissioned

• 2009 - CIL plant upgraded to 12.3 Mtpa

• 2014 - Debottlenecking increased capacity to 13.5 Mtpa

• 2018 - Gravity circuit installed and commissioned

 2010 GRG TEST WORK
Single Pass Scoping Tests Three Stage eGRG Test
Final Size Gold Units (mg) Overall Recovery (%) GRG by
Head Recovery Tails Fraction
(%) µm Con 1 Con 2 Con 3 Tail Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3
Sample (g/t Au) (%)
425 0.05 0.09 0.09
Panning Pan Tail Total 300 0.04 0.10 0.07 0.17 0.24
PAM Grav 01 2.28 53.2 10.7 63.9 36.1 212 0.62 0.33 1.07 0.57 1.64

KOT Grav 01 4.24 59.8 6.7 66.5 33.5 150 1.23 0.32 0.15 1.94 2.14 0.55 0.26 2.95

ULAP Grav 01 1.69 40.6 11.2 51.8 48.2 106 2.60 1.18 0.26 1.91 4.53 2.06 0.46 7.04

Teberebie 2.13 55.0 14.0 69.0 31.0 75 4.00 1.84 0.42 1.44 6.96 3.20 0.72 10.88

AKC Grav 01 1.22 44.9 12.8 57.7 42.3 53 3.38 1.91 0.54 2.20 5.88 3.32 0.95 10.15

A-KOCR Grav 01 4.14 51.1 6.8 57.8 42.2 38 2.84 1.29 0.70 1.44 4.95 2.25 1.22 8.42
25 1.68 1.34 0.43 2.38 2.93 2.33 0.74 5.99
-25 1.93 1.88 2.02 13.07 3.37 3.26 3.51 10.14
Total 18.4 10.17 4.51 24.4 32.0 17.7 7.86 57.56
Recovery per Pass of GRG Fraction 56% 31% 14%
Total Gold Units in Feed (mg) 57.5
Calculated Feed Grade Au (g/t) 2.87
 2016 TEST WORK
• Recovery decreased when treating higher GRG ore

• Small but significant - 97.0% to 96.6%

• 7.5kg CIL tailings tested in laboratory Knelson

• 13.3% gravity gold in tailings sample

Test Results Gold Balance

Test Product
Mass (g) Mass (%) Assay (ppm) Gold Units (mg) Distribution (%)
Concentrate 119.1 1.61 0.47 56 13.30

Tails 7,290 98.39 0.05 365 86.69

Calculated Feed 7,409 100 0.06 420 100.00

Assay Feed 0.06

 2017 TEST WORK
• QS48 Knelson Concentrator on CIL tailings
• Knelson mass pull varied (0.01% to 0.09%)

• Knelson concentrate was leached in cyanide

• Cyanide amenable gold represented:

- 16% to 34% of CIL tailings gold
- 0.6% to 1.2% of mill feed gold
 PLANT FEED PROJECTIONS
• Tarkwa considered the future ore GRG content
• 2017 Tarkwa Strategic Plan

• Yellow and Grey columns indicate high to moderate GRG ore

800

700
Ako_Ulap
Mined Gold (Oz)

600
Ako_Ridge
500
Ako_Gap
400
Kot_Int
300
Kot_Final
200

100 PMA

0 Teberebie
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026
 PROJECT DESIGN GOALS
• Recover 60% to 70% of GRG (35% to 40% of total gold)

• Reduce gold “lockup” in grinding circuit

• Design with long term outlook;

o Industry best practice
o Reliable equipment
o Ease of maintenance
o Open to expansion
 TARKWA PROCESS FLOWSHEET
CRUSHING GRINDING
15%
GRAVITY CON
CUF
RECOVERY

CYCLONE INTENSIVE
CLASSIFICATION CYANIDATION
COF

CARBON ELECTRO-
IN LEACH WINNING
 TARKWA PROCESSING PLANT
GRAVITY CIRCUIT DESIGN

• Processing 15% of Ball Mill Cyclone Feed

• Equipment;
- 3 x QS48 Knelson Concentrators
(400tph capacity each)
- Consep Acacia CS6000
(9.0t per batch capacity)
 PROJECT JUSTIFICATION
Financial modelling basis:

• Improve gold recovery by 0.6%

(approximately 3,000ozpa)

• Processing reagent cost savings projected;

o $0.27/t
o US $3.6Mpa

• Approval was granted for US $6.6 M expenditure

 GRAVITY CIRCUIT OPERATION
COMMISSIONING
• Knelson Concentrators operated with 40 minute cycles
• One Consep Acacia batch processed per day (~9 tonnes)

RAMP UP
• After 3 weeks,
• Knelson Concentrators operated with 20 minute cycles
• Two Consep Acacia batches processed per day (~18 tonnes)
• Additional electrowinning cells dedicated to gravity
 GRAVITY CIRCUIT OPERATION
CONSEP ACACIA PROCESS – 2 BATCH PER DAY BASIS

Consep Acacia CS6000 Sequence Stages Time (h)

Concentrate Transfer 0.1

Desliming and Mixing of Leach Reagents 0.8

Leaching Cycle 8.0

Pregnant Solution Draining and Rinsing 0.75

Pregnant Solution Transfer (12 m3) 0.25

Discharge of Barren Solids 0.25
TOTAL 10.15
 PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT
PRE 1
2 BATCHES/DAY
COMMISSIONING BATCH/DAY
30 100.00
CUF/COF Gold Grade Ratio %

25 95.00

Acacia Gold Recovery %

20 90.00

15 85.00

10 80.00

5 75.00

0 70.00
20-Jun-18

17-Jul-18

13-Aug-18

9-Sep-18

6-Oct-18

2-Nov-18

29-Nov-18

26-Dec-18

22-Jan-19

18-Feb-19

17-Mar-19

13-Apr-19

10-May-19
CUF/COF -(Left Axis) Acacia Leach Efficiency (Right Axis)
 OVERALL PERFORMANCE
MONTHLY GOLD PRODUCTION BY SOURCE
100%
7%
90%
80% 40% 39% 34% 39% 35% 35% 37% 40% 40%
70%
60%
50% 100%
93%
40%
30% 60% 61% 66% 61% 65% 65% 63% 60% 60%
20%
10%
0%
July '18

Aug '18

Sep '18

Oct '18

Nov'18

Dec'18

Jan '19

Feb'19

Mar '19

April '19

May '19
Elution Gold Gravity Gold Gravity Circuit Commissioned in Third Week August 2018
 POST MORTEM
Benefits meeting expectations

• Gravity recovery stabilized at 34% to 40% as expected

• Overall recovery increased by 0.6% on average, meeting target

• Gold recovery from Knelson concentrate rarely less than 98%

• Reagent consumption reduced

• Improved metal accounting and grade reconciliation

MODELLED VS REALISED RECOVERY
MODELLED GRAVITY RECOVERY

ACHIEVED

MODELLED
 CONCLUSIONS
• Upgrade of Gravity Circuit planned

• Modelling indicates that 2 more Knelson Concentrators will;

o Increase gravity recovery from 37% to 42%
o Projected overall recovery increase of 0.1%
• Compelling findings for plants without gravity circuits
THANK YOU.