UNIVERSITY OF DAR ES SALAAM

SCHOOL OF MINES AND GEOSCIENCES (SoMG)

DEPARTMENT OF MINING AND MINERAL PROCESSING

ENGINEERING

MP 200: PRACTICAL TRAINING

STAMIGOLD BIHARAMULO MINE

STUDENT'S NAME: SIZYA, JOSEPH MARTIN

STUDENT'S REG No: 2019-04-12167

DEGREE PROGRAMME: BSC. IN METALLURGY AND MINERALS

PROCESSING ENGINEERING (BSC. MMPE)

PT SUPERVISOR: ENG. E MASWOLA

DURATION: 18th July 2022 to 9th September 2022

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Foremost, I am very grateful to my almighty God for keeping me alive and safe during the whole
period of Industrial Practical Training 3 at Stamigold Biharamulo mine.

I also like to express my special thanks to the gold plant team, exceedingly Eng. Kutika (plant
manager), Eng. Naziru Kyaruzi (senior plant metallurgist), Eng. Frank Charles (metallurgist) and
Eng. Grayson Kinanja (metallurgist) and all laboratory employees who, despite being busy with
their daily duties, took Time to guide, train and supervise us throughout the practical training.

I sincerely acknowledge my family for the spiritual, moral, and economic support and their
everlasting love and positive ideas that they had been providing to encourage me endlessly to
carry on during all the pleasant and difficult times I was facing during the IPT 3 period. May
God bless them so much.

In addition, I acknowledge the Management of the Department of Mining and Mineral

Processing Engineering in the School of Mines and Geoscience (SoMG) at the University of Dar
es Salaam (UDSM). My special thanks should go to Engineer E. Masolwa, PT supervisor, and
Doctor Katemi, PT coordinator and academic supervisor, for their endless efforts to ensure that
we students get the chance to visit, learn and correlate the theories and practical applications at
various large-scale industries.

It is my pleasure to place on record my best regards to all my fellow students since they have
become the party of my success during this period of my carrier, both from UDSM and MUST.
Furthermore, plant trainers and operators whom we cooperated with for the whole time during
practical training, bearing in mind, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the
Metallurgical laboratory operators for their academic and moral support for this Time on IPT 3.
Thanks and God Bless you.

i|Page
ABSTRACT
This report consists of three chapters. The first chapter consists of the weekly reports that briefly
describe the work performed each day of the week and details of the main job performed weekly.

The second chapter consists of the main report, which consists of the description of the location,
the main methods used in the production of gold, and activities done in the Stamigold
Biharamulo mine

The third chapter of this report consists of the mini project conducted during the practical
training at Stamigold Biharamulo Mine. The project title was Gold leaching by New Lime
Sulphur YX500 reagent as an alternative to cyanide leaching. The reagent yielded a maximum
recovery of 96.23% at a concentration of 4kg/tonne of ore and a pH of 10.5. These results can be
compared to Cyanide which yielded a maximum recovery of 92.10% at a concentration of
220ppm and a pH of 10.5. However, the economic analysis proved to lean towards favouring
Cyanide as the better leaching reagent from an economic point of view.

ii | P a g e
Table of Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENT..................................................................................................................i

ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................................ii

List of Figures..............................................................................................................................v

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.......................................................................................................vii

PART ONE: WEEKLY REPORT...............................................................................................viii

PART TWO: MAIN REPORT.......................................................................................................ix

CHAPTER ONE..........................................................................................................................1

1.0: INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................................1

1.2: Location of the plant.........................................................................................................1

1.3: Organisation structure at Stamigold Biharamulo Mine.....................................................2

1.4: Stamigold mineralogy.......................................................................................................2

1.5: Processing plant and method applied at the United Republic of Tanzania gold mine......3

CHAPTER TWO.........................................................................................................................5

2.1: COMMINUTION..............................................................................................................5

CHAPTER THREE....................................................................................................................11

3.1: GRAVITY CONCENTRATION CIRCUIT...................................................................11

CHAPTER FOUR......................................................................................................................13

4.1: CIL CIRCUIT.................................................................................................................13

CHAPTER FIVE........................................................................................................................15

5.1: ELUTION CIRCUIT.......................................................................................................15

5.2: REACTIVATION...........................................................................................................16

5.3: THICKENING................................................................................................................17

CHAPTER SIX..........................................................................................................................18

6.0: PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED AND THEIR RESOLUTIONS..................................18

iii | P a g e
 6.1: KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS OBTAINED..................................................................18

PART THREE: MINI PROJECT..................................................................................................19

CHAPTER SEVEN....................................................................................................................20

7.1: PROJECT TITLE............................................................................................................20

7.2: PROBLEM STATEMENT.............................................................................................20

7.3: OBJECTIVES.................................................................................................................20

7.4: METHODOLOGY..........................................................................................................20

7.5: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS...................................................................................31

7.6: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS............................................................46

APPENDIX................................................................................................................................49

REFERENCES...........................................................................................................................47

iv | P a g e
List of Figures
Figure 1: Location of Stamigold Biharamulo Mine (Google maps satellite view).........................1
Figure 2: Organisation structure at SBM.........................................................................................2
Figure 3: Stamigold Processing Plant overall flowsheet (Drawn using outotec HSC chemistry
version 6.0 software).......................................................................................................................4
Figure 4: Crushing circuit at SBM (Drawn using outotec HSC chemistry version 6.0 software). .5
Figure 5: Apron feeder schematics (Tulawaka Process Manual, 2004)..........................................6
Figure 6: Jaw crusher schematics (Tulawaka Process Manual, 2004)............................................7
Figure 7: Grinding circuit at SBM (Drawn using outotec HSC chemistry version 6.0 software)...8
Figure 8: SAG mill schematics (Tulawaka Process Manual, 2004)................................................9
Figure 9: Hydrocyclone schematics (Tulawaka Process Manual, 2004).......................................10
Figure 10: SBM Gravity concentration circuit (Drawn using outotec HSC chemistry version 6.0
software)........................................................................................................................................11
Figure 11: Knelson concentrator schematics (Tulawaka Process Manual, 2004).........................12
Figure 12: SBM Batch InLine Leach Reactor1000 schematic......................................................12
Figure 13: CIL circuit schematics (Drawn using outotec HSC chemistry version 6.0 software). 14
Figure 14: Elution circuit schematics (Drawn using outotec HSC chemistry version 6.0 software)
.......................................................................................................................................................15
Figure 15: Carbon Regeneration Circuit (Drawn using outotec HSC chemistry version 6.0
software)........................................................................................................................................16
Figure 16: Thickener schematics (Tulawaka Process Manual, 2004)...........................................17
Figure 17: Potential-pH diagram for the system Au-H2O-CN¯ at 25 ºC. Concentrations of all
soluble gold species = 10-4 M (Marsden, 2006).............................................................................24
Figure 18: The Pourbaix diagram of the gold-thiourea complex in a H2O2 system (Ranjbar R,
2017)..............................................................................................................................................27
Figure 19: Model development (developed using design expert 13)............................................34
Figure 20: Normal probability plot................................................................................................37
Figure 21: Model development (Developed using design expert 13)............................................41
Figure 22: Normal probability plot................................................................................................44
Figure 23: Cyanide Net Profit graph.............................................................................................45
Figure 24: YX500 Net Profit graph...............................................................................................46

v|Page
List of tables
Table 1: Design summary, central composite................................................................................31
Table 2: Variable parameters design summary.............................................................................31
Table 3: Cyanide leaching results (DOE by Design expert 13).....................................................32
Table 4: Fit summary for response (recovery)..............................................................................32
Table 5: Point Prediction...............................................................................................................35
Table 6: ANOVA table for the response.......................................................................................35
Table 7: Fit statitsics......................................................................................................................37
Table 8: Build information............................................................................................................38
Table 9: Variable parameters design Summary.............................................................................38
Table 10: New Lime Sulphur YX500 (DOE design by design expert 13)....................................39
Table 11: Fit summary for response (recovery)............................................................................39
Table 12: Point prediction.............................................................................................................42
Table 13: ANOVA for Linear model.............................................................................................42
Table 14: Fit statistics....................................................................................................................44
Table 15: Sodium cyanide waste solution and carbon assay AAS reading...................................49
Table 16: New lime sulphur YX500 waste solution and carbon assay AAS readings..................49
Table 17: Cyanide solid waste solution AAS reading...................................................................50
Table 18: New lime sulphur YX500 waste solid assay AAS readings..........................................51
Table 19: Sodium cyanide recovery..............................................................................................52
Table 20: New lime sulphur YX500 recovery...............................................................................52
Table 21: New Lime Sulphur YX500 Net profit table..................................................................53
Table 22: Cyanide Net profit table................................................................................................54

vi | P a g e
List of abbreviations
AAS - Atomic Absorption Spectrometer

ABG – Africa Barrick Gold

ANOVA - Analysis of Variance

CIL – Carbon in leach

DOE – Design of experiment

GPS – Global positioning system

Oz – Ounces

ppm – Parts per million

ROM - Run of mine

SAG – Semi autogenous

SBM – Stamigold Biharamulo Mine

STD – Standard order

Tpd – Tonnes per day

Tph – Tonnes per hour

Tzs – Tanzanian shillings

ILR – Inline leach reactor

vii | P a g e
 PART ONE: WEEKLY REPORT

viii | P a g e
 PART TWO: MAIN REPORT

ix | P a g e
 CHAPTER ONE
1.0: INTRODUCTION
1.1: Historical background
Stamigold mining operations began after the Tulawaka mine ceased in 2013, with a gradual
decrease in reserves. STAMICO, a Tanzanian state-owned mining company, acquired the mine
and its surrounding exploration licenses from ABG a Canada-based Northern Mining company
in January 2014.

STAMICO holds 99.998% of the total shares, while the Treasury Registrar owns 0.002%.

1.2: Location of the plant

Stamigold Biharamulo Mine is 160km south-west of Mwanza in the western part of the Lake
Victoria Goldfield, in the United Republic of Tanzania, with coordinates approximately
3°12'5.17" S and 31°32'22.54" E in the Global Positioning System (GPS). Its location is better
illustrated in Figure 1. The property lies in the Biharamulo district (Kagera Region) license area
and has a surface area of 317km². Moreover, the mine owns an airstrip that provides access to
chartered flights.

Figure 1: Location of Stamigold Biharamulo Mine (Google maps satellite view)

1|Page
1.3: Organisation structure at Stamigold Biharamulo Mine
Figure 2 best illustrates the organisational structure at SBM.

Figure 2: Organisation structure at SBM

1.4: Stamigold mineralogy

SBM gold mine lies in the western Rwamagaza greenstone belt, with mineralization hosted in a
regional northwesterly striking Ushirombo shear zone.

The east zone is hosted in dominantly volcanogenic tuffaceous rock and bedded terrigenous
sediment with small layers of silicate iron formations. Six different mineralized areas were
identified through geological studies of the mine.

2|Page
Proven and probable reserves at the mine as of December 2012 stood at 41,000t graded at
16.81g/t Au, equivalent to 22,000oz of Au.

Gold mineralization at the east zone occurs within quartz–tourmaline veins and minor sulphides
within a 30m to 80m shear structure. The east zone is highly mineralized compared to the west
zone, with deposits spread laterally at a depth of 100m, while the mineralization extends to a
strike length of 1.1km.

The gold deposits in the west zone are hosted within sheared felsic intrusive rocks.
Mineralization is open in all directions and spans a strike length of 750m. The gold is
consociated with distributed sulfides, periodic quartz stringers, and narrow veins.

1.5: Processing plant and method applied at SBM

The processing plant at the SBM mine processes a total of 1560 tons a day (tpd) of ore.

The run-of-mine (ROM) ore stockpile is crushed using a primary jaw crusher to a high degree of
fineness. Then, the crushed ore was transferred to a single-stage semi-autogenous grinder (SAG)
mill for grinding.

The ground ore is then fed to the SAG mill, Knelson concentrators, a Gekko intensive leach
reactor, and an electrowinning circuit to retrieve approximately 50% to 70% of the gold. The
remaining gold was treated through carbon-in-leach (CIL) technology.

The ground ore was transferred to cyanide leach tanks in the CIL method to generate a pregnant
solution. First, the solution was fed to a series of carbon adsorption agitated tanks where the gold
stuck to the surface of the carbon. Next, the gold-bearing carbon was poured into a heated
sodium hydroxide-cyanide-water solution, and gold precipitates were detached from the carbon.

The gold precipitates were washed with high-pressure sprays, dried, and melted at the smelter or
refinery to produce pure gold dore bars or ingots for export. Finally, the solution is transferred to
the tailings thickener to recycle water for the processing plant. The flowsheet in Figure 3
summarises the flow of materials at Stamigold Biharamulo Mine.

3|Page
 ROM
STOCKPILE HYDRO
CYCLONE

NaCN
Lime
Hydrogen peroxide

JAW
CRUSHER CONE
CRUSHER
CARBON CARBON MOVING COUNTER CURRENT TO THE SLURRY
KNELSON
CONCENTRATOR

LEACHING 1 2 3 4 5 6
TANK

ELUTION
EMMERGENCY
COLUMN
STOCKPILE

ELECTROWINNING
CELL 1
INLINE LEACH
SAG MILL
REACTOR

ELECTROWINNING
FURNANCE
CELL 2
GOLD BULLION

THICKENER

TAILINGS STORAGE
FACILITY DETOXIFICATION
TANK

Figure 3: Stamigold Processing Plant overall flowsheet (Drawn using outotec HSC chemistry
version 6.0 software)

4|Page
 CHAPTER TWO
2.1: COMMINUTION
Comminution is the size reduction of ore to smaller average particle size and eventually liberates
the minerals. Comminution in the mineral processing plant, or mill, occurs as crushing and
grinding processes. Crushing reduces the particle size of run-of-mine ore to such a level that
grinding can be carried out until the mineral and gangue are substantially produced as separate
particles (Wills, 2006). Plant comminution is carried out at the SBM process plant by crushing
and grinding. The crushing circuit is divided into two significant subsystems Crushing and
Conveying, while the Grinding Circuit is composed of a SAG mill and cone crusher (pebble
crusher).

2.1.1: Crushing circuit

Crushing is the first mechanical stage in the comminution process in which the main objective is
the liberation of the valuable minerals from the gangue (Wills, 2006). At SBM, there is a single
toggle jaw crusher. The size of material fed in the circuit is -600 mm due to the static grizzly
screen aperture and delivers a product size of 100 percent passing 90 mm to the grinding circuit.
The crushed ore product passes onto a series of conveyor belts CV 01 and CV 02, feeding up to
115 tph to the SAG mill feed hopper and gets conveyed to the SAG mill by CV 03. When the
hopper is full, it discharges material to CV 04 which discharges to the emergency stockpile.
Figure 4 best illustrates the process flow of materials in the grinding circuit at SBM.

5|Page
 ROM

PAD

APRON
FEEDER

JAW CRUSHER

CRUSHED PRODUCT CONVEYOR (CV01) SAG MILL

FEED
HOPPER

Ore to Emergency stockpile BELT FEEDER

EMERGENCY STOCKPILE CONVEYOR (CV05)

4
Ore to SAG Mill

SAG MILL FEED CONVEYOR (CV03)

EMERGENCY
STOCKPILE

Figure 4: Crushing circuit at SBM (Drawn using outotec HSC chemistry version 6.0 software)

At SBM, the ROM bin provides a 60-tonne surge volume ahead of the apron feeder. The apron
feeder at SBM has a maximum feeding capacity of 200 tph and is driven by a 4 kW, 960 rpm
motor and gearbox. The feeder is 1.219 m wide by 6 m long, and the pans are 25 mm thick.
Figure 5 best explains the apron feeder schematics.

6|Page
 Figure 5: Apron feeder schematics (Tulawaka Process Manual, 2004)

2.1.1.1: Jaw crusher

The jaw crusher used in SBM is a Nordberg Model C110 single-toggle unit with a feed opening
of 110 cm. A 132 kW, 1481 rpm, and frame size D3155C motor powers the crusher. The jaw
crusher motor operates at 380-415 v and 289-219 A. The crusher operates with a minimum
closed-side setting (CSS) of 70 mm and a normal setting of 100 mm. This setting produces a
product size of 100 percent passing 90 mm, and 80 percent passing 80 mm with a processing
capacity of over 150 tph. Schematics of a crusher are shown in Figure 6.

7|Page
 Figure 6: Jaw crusher schematics (Tulawaka Process Manual, 2004)

2.1.2: Grinding circuit

Grinding is the last stage in the process of comminution. Here the particles are reduced in size by
a combination of impact and abrasion, either dry or suspended in water (Wills, 2006).

Inside the SAG mill, impact or compression is most pronounced, followed by cascading motion
which together leads the ore to be ground into fine ore. After which, the oversized pebbles and
iron fragments are taken to CV 05, where a magnet separator removes iron fragments. Then the
remaining pebbles are taken to the pebble crusher. In order to prevent damage to the cone
crusher, a bypass flop gates solenoid valve driven pneumatically with assistance from the metal
detector bypass metals when detected. Afterwards, the undersized are pumped to cyclone
clusters, where overflow goes to the CIL circuit, and underflow goes to the gravity circuit. Figure
7 best illustrates the grinding circuit process.

8|Page
 Figure 7: Grinding circuit at SBM (Drawn using outotec HSC chemistry version 6.0 software)

2.1.2.1: SAG mill

At SBM, the mill is charged with steel balls (about 25%), and the media charge occupies less
than half of the mill volume (about 5-8%), which assists in grinding the ore into a slurry (106
microns), and the mill materials charge occupies a volume of 30% of the total volume and
rotating at 80-90% of the critical speed depending on the ore characteristics. The mill used at
SBM is a J/N 1505 constructed by Minerals FFE liners company limited and normally processes
60-85 tph from CV 03 with 15-30 m 3/h water added. The mill is driven by two motors. The drive
motor is a 3-phase AECT-WT001 1550 kW motor (1.55 MW during operation but requires 3-4
MW during startup) with 1488 rpm weighing 11200 kg with frame D630A. The inch motor is a
3-phase, 15 kW, and 1455 rpm motor used to inch the SAG mill during the relining process.
Figure 8 best illustrates the SAG mill schematics.

9|Page
 Figure 8: SAG mill schematics (Tulawaka Process Manual, 2004)

2.1.2.2: Cone crusher

At SBM, a cone crusher is used in conjunction with the SAG mill to crush pebbles from the SAG
mill. The crushed pebbles are transferred to the SAG mill feed conveyor (CV 03). The crusher
used at SBM is a type H2800-MF/HC/C-16 weighing 5900kg run by a Sandvik motor of 75HP
and 55kW. Figure 9 shows the cone crusher schematics.

Figure: Cone crusher schematics (Tulawaka Process Manual, 2004)

10 | P a g e
2.1.2.3: Hydro-cyclone operation
Centrifugal force created by the circular motion inside the cyclone separates the fine particles
from the coarse particles. The large and heavier particles are thrown against the cyclone wall and
flow down towards the apex. The water drags the lighter particles to the overflow stream. The
fines are dragged with most of the water through the vortex finder. The balance between the
centrifugal and drag forces determines where the particle will leave.

Factors affecting the classification of particles are;

Cyclone operating pressure, vortex finder & spigot diameters feed size distribution, feed pulp
density, % solids, and slurry viscosity.

Cyclone cluster at SBM comprises six cyclones, only three operating at a time at up to 160 kPa
and flow of up to 280 m3/h. Proper operation of the cyclones is essential to the success of the
SBM operation. The particle size delivered to downstream operations must be within
specifications. For the ore processed at SBM, approximately 80% of the particles in the cyclone
overflow stream must be smaller than 106 microns (0.106 millimeters). Gold-bearing particles
more prominent than this size may not be ground small enough to sufficiently expose the gold
and silver surfaces to attain the target recovery in the leaching process. Figure 9 best illustrates
the cyclone schematics.

Figure 9: Hydrocyclone schematics (Tulawaka Process Manual, 2004)

11 | P a g e
 CHAPTER THREE
3.1: GRAVITY CONCENTRATION CIRCUIT
Gravity concentration methods separate minerals of different specific gravity by their relative
movement in response to gravity and one or more other forces, the latter often being the
resistance to motion offered by a viscous fluid, such as water or air (Wills, 2006). The gravity
concentration circuit at SBM is designed to remove free gold mineral particles from the
circulating load in the SAG mill circuit, which prevents over-grinding of the gold, which could
lead to a low gold recovery in the CIL circuit and losses of gold due to plating of gold on mill
liners.

At SBM, the gravity circuit comprises a Knelson concentrator and an Inline Leach Reactor. The
portion of the cyclone underflow that is diverted to the gravity concentration circuit is first
screened to remove the coarse ore particles. The screen has 1.22 m wide by 2.44 m long. The
screen oversize contains the coarse ore particles returned to the SAG mill feed. The underflow
from the screen contains the finer particles and is sent to the Knelson concentrators. Figure 11
best illustrates the gravity concentration circuit.

12 | P a g e
 From Cycone Underflow Launder
(Grinding Circuit) Flocculant

NaOH
GRAVITY CIRCUIT
SCALPING SCREEN NaCN
FEED BOX

SOLUTION
GRAVITY CIRCUIT TANK
To SAG Mill SCALPING SCREEN

FEED Pregnant Eluate

To Electrowinning
Cell 02 (Gold room)
GRAVITY CIRCUIT
SCALPING SCREEN
UNDERFLOW DISTRIBUTOR

Process water
INLINE LEACH
Hydrogen
REACTOR
Peroxide

KNELSON
CONCENTRATOR

To Cyclone feed hopper (Grinding circuit)

Figure 10: SBM Gravity concentration circuit (Drawn using outotec HSC chemistry version 6.0
software)

3.1.1: Knelson concentrator

The Knelson concentrator is a compact batch centrifugal separator with an active fluidized bed to
capture heavy minerals (C. Marion, 2019). At SBM, the knelson concentrator operates at a
current of 11.0-11.2 A, with a slurry flow ranging from 9-11 m 3/h, a pressure of 120-130 kPa,
and 400-500 rpm. Figure 11 illustrates the knelson schematics.

Figure 11: Knelson concentrator schematics (Tulawaka Process Manual, 2004)

13 | P a g e
3.1.2: Inline leach reactor (ILR)
The InLine Leach Reactor (ILR) is a commercial, either continuously or batch-wise operated,
intensive cyanidation reactor. A batch-wise process of intensive cyanide leaching at SBM using
ILR is employed. At SBM, a Gekko intensive leach reactor is used where typically, the dissolved
oxygen level is above 20 ppm, pH at 13.5, and cyanide level at 2% or 20,000 ppm (Katsikaros
N., Gekkos System Pty Ltd, private conversation, 2008). The leach times range from 6 to 24
hours. The batch circuit for ILR is shown in Figure 12.

Figure 12: SBM Batch InLine Leach Reactor1000 schematic (Tulawaka Process Manual, 2004)

14 | P a g e
 CHAPTER FOUR
4.1: CIL CIRCUIT
The CIL process is mainly used to treat ores containing organic matter and preg-robbing species
that can adsorb [Au(C.N.)2] anions from solution by carbonaceous species in ore, clay-type
minerals, and other mineral species such as graphite (Marsden, 2006); (K.L.Rees, 2000).

Equation 1 is the gold dissolution reaction as proposed by Elsner (Marsden, 2006):

4Au + 8CN- + O2 + 2H2O → 4Au(CN)2-+ 4 OH- .Equation 1

Figure 13 best illustrates the CIL circuit schematics. At SBM, the CIL circuit feeds from the
cyclone overflow and the composed of one leaching tank (conditioning tank) where lime,
Cyanide, and hydrogen peroxide are added and six adsorption tanks where carbon is added.
Carbon flows countercurrent to the slurry flow starting from the sixth tank to the first tank. The
pump transfers the loaded carbon in the first adsorption tank to the loaded carbon recovery
screen. Then, the loaded carbon goes to the elution circuit, while the slurry returns to the second
adsorption tank. On the other hand, after the slurry is processed in the CIL circuit, it is taken to
the tailings circuit, where the water is harvested in the tailings thickener for reusing, and the
remaining slurry is pumped to the tailings storage facility.

At SBM, the ore feed rate to the leach circuit is designed to be 1,560 tpd based on 90 percent
availability. The leaching tanks have a height of 8.13 m, a diameter of 7.5 m, and a capacity of
359 m3. The tank has a retention time of 3.6 hours. There are six CIL agitated tanks of the same
size for a total leach and CIL tank retention time of 25 hours for leaching and adsorption. Each
tank has an agitator driven by an 18.5kW electric motor connected to a gear reducer and a 6kW
inter-tank carbon screen motor.

15 | P a g e
 Barren carbon
loaded carbon (From regeneration kiln)
Cyclone overflow
and slurry

LOADED CARBON RECOVERY

FEED BOX
SCREEN FEED BOX BARREN CARBON SIZING
SCREEN FEED BOX

LOADED BARREN
To SAG mill TRASH CARBON CARBON
SCREEN RECOVERY loaded carbon SIZING
SCREEN SCREEN
(To elution circuit)
Barren Eluate
(From Barren Eluate
storage tank) LEACH FEED
slurry Activated
DISTRIBUTIONN BOX
Carbon

NaCN To Carbon
Hydrogen peroxide Carbon Carbon Carbon attrition tank
Carbon Carbon
Lime

slurry slurry To carbon

slurry safety screen
slurry slurry slurry

ADSORPTION TANK ADSORPTION TANK ADSORPTION TANK

ADSORPTION TANK ADSORPTION TANK ADSORPTION TANK
LEACHING TANK 04 05 06
01 02 03

Figure 13: CIL circuit schematics (Drawn using outotec HSC chemistry version 6.0 software)

16 | P a g e
 CHAPTER FIVE
5.1: ELUTION CIRCUIT
After carbon absorption in CIL tanks, the activated carbon loaded with gold and other organic
and inorganic material is pumped by an 11kW motor from the first adsorption tank to the elution
circuit and is treated in an elution process to strip gold from the carbon in the solution form but
in a more concentrated form. In the stripping process, gold is converted into the solution form to
allow activated carbon to be generated and recycled to the CIL circuit.

At SBM, the elution process was done at a temperature range of 92-120°C and a pressure of 150
kPa. The solution derived from this process, called the pregnant eluate, is pumped to electrolytic
cells in the refinery, where the gold is recovered from the solution. Figure 15 best illustrates the
elution circuit at SBM. The elution process starts at the pre-heat stage, where only valves 1 and 4
open, and the solution circulates through the heat exchangers to the elution column back to the
strip solution tank until a temperature of 92°C is reached. After which, the process switches to
elution, where only valves 1 and 3 open to allow the solution to be trapped by the electrowinning
cell and back in cycles. This process continues for up to 18 hrs, after which reactivation follows.

CarbonFrom
f Carbon recovery screen
(CIL Circuit) Pregnant Eluate
(From Gold room)

Water
0

Air ACID WASH BARREN ELUATE

HOPPER
STORAGE TANK To Leach
8 feed box
Acid Pump (CIL Ciruit)
Raw water

2
TRIM Pregnant solution
ELUTION HEAT EXCHANGER
COLUMN t Electrowinning
To
Cell 01
RECOVERY (Gold Room)
HEAT EXCHANGER 1 3
4

5 Barren Eluate
From Electrowinning
To regeneration PRIMARY Cell 01
HEAT EXCHANGER (Gold Room)
kiln 6
NaCN
STRIP SOLUTION
TANK NaOH
EXPANSION Raw water
TANK 9
THERMAL OIL HEATER

Thermal Oil

Figure 14: Elution circuit schematics (Drawn using outotec HSC chemistry version 6.0 software)

17 | P a g e
5.2: REACTIVATION
At SBM, the regeneration kiln is a rotary regeneration kiln made by Ansac with model number
HK510D. The kiln has two burners with a combustion chamber volume and combustion swept
volume of 2.5m3 and 3.7m3, respectively. The fuel type used is diesel, with fuel consumption of
11 to 30L/h and supply pressure of 200 to 100kPag. Figure 16 illustrates the reactivation kiln
circuit.

The carbon is burned at a temperature of 740°C. The kiln is usually fitted with a discharge chute
penetrating at least 200 to 300mm below the waterline of the quench tank. This 200-300mm
penetration is essential and must always be maintained while the kiln operates. In addition, this
waterline provides an air seal to prevent oxygen ingress into the kiln's discharge chamber and
heat tube. If oxygen were to enter these parts of the kiln, it would result in the uncontrolled
combustion of the carbon. Therefore, the carbon is transferred to the last leaching tank after
regeneration.

Barren Carbon

Carbon

Water
To thickener
FEED VALVE
Cooling water

REACTIVATION
KILN

Raw water

CARBON QUENCH
TANK

To Barren Carbon Sizing Screen

Feed Box (CIL Circuit)
DISCHARGE VALVE

Figure 15: Carbon Regeneration Circuit (Drawn using outotec HSC chemistry version 6.0
software)

18 | P a g e
5.3: THICKENING
Thickener is the partial dewatering device that thickens diluted slurry to a higher percent of
solids to reduce volume for downstream processing. In thickener, the feed enters tangentially at
the center, where the slurry contact with flocculants and lime causes the materials to settle. As a
result, the thickened slurry is withdrawn from the bottom, and clean water overflows the top.
Figure 17 best illustrates the thickener schematics.

Flocculant Is a chemical designed to increase the particle settling ratio in the thickener.
Flocculation causes the number of more minor indicates particles to join together to form an
agglomerate which settles much faster.

The SBM plant has a thickener that got a diameter of 12 meters. It is run by a 3 Hp, 3 Kw motor
with 950 rpm. It receives the slurry from the final CIL tank (Adsorption tank 06). The parameters
of thickener include;
i) The underflow speed
ii) Density of slurry
iii) Bed mass pressure
The bed mass pressure is directly proportional to the density and inversely proportional to the

Figure 16: Thickener schematics (Tulawaka Process Manual, 2004)

19 | P a g e
 CHAPTER SIX
6.0: PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED AND THEIR RESOLUTIONS
During my practical training, I observed the following problems:
1) Due to different sensor problems, the conveyors were always run in maintenance mode,
preventing the sensors from stopping the conveyor when a problem in the speed was
detected. For example, on 14th August 2022, the conveyor belt was torn due to always
running at maintenance. This problem could have been prevented if the conveyor had
been run in auto mode.
2) It took the elution circuit a very long time to reach the temperature of 92°C during the
pre-heating stage, mainly caused by insufficient insulation in the circuit. Another cause
may be due to using a very outdated heating system.
3) The grindability at the SAG mill discharge and the cyclone overflow hardly reached 70%
under the required 106 microns for operating the plant. This can be improved by feeding
the ore in the SAG mill at the recommended 47tph instead of the 85tph and ensuring the
spigot and the vortex finder in the hydro-cyclones are continuously checked and replaced
if worn out.

6.1: KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS OBTAINED

During my practical training, the experience I gained was as follows;
1) Knowledge in SAG mill relining, inching, and starting.
2) Gained knowledge of spigot and vortex finder replacement.
3) I gained knowledge of crusher and conveying circuit operation.
4) It was troubleshooting Skills for different equipment in the processing plant, including
the knelson concentrator when it faults the flow.
5) Maintenance of the Jaw crusher belts after they have been torn up.
6) Understood the effect of more significant particle size F80 feed into the SAG mill
7) Understand the effect of throughput, mill speed, ball charge level, and discharge density
in grinding
8) Understood the concept of close communication with the ore control concerned with ore
grade, type of ore, and quantity of ore going to the stockpile.
9) Understood the maintenance issues in the grinding circuit.

20 | P a g e
 PART THREE: MINI PROJECT

21 | P a g e
 CHAPTER SEVEN
7.1: PROJECT TITLE
Gold leaching by new lime sulphur YX500 reagent as an alternative to cyanide leaching.

7.2: PROBLEM STATEMENT

SBM, a high-grade built plant, suffers tremendously from feeding a low-grade ore; thus,
decreasing the plant's operating cost is of utmost importance. In addition, decreasing the reagents
cost will significantly boost production profits. Therefore, this thesis aims at determining
whether the new lime sulphur reagent is more economically viable than Cyanide or not.

7.3: OBJECTIVES
7.3.1: Main objective
 To economically compare the recovery of gold leaching between cyanide and new lime
sulphur YX500 leaching reagent.

7.3.2: Specific objective

 Determining the optimal recovery of the two leaching reagents (Cyanide and new lime
sulphur YX500).
 Comparing carbon loading of the activated carbon under the two reagents.

7.4: METHODOLOGY
In order to meet the specific objectives stated above, the following activities were done before
investigating and providing the conclusions to the main objectives.

 Reading different textbooks and exploring different information from different websites
and articles regarding the recovery of gold by the use of each of the reagents (Cyanide
and the new lime sulphur YX500 reagent) and understanding how they are used to treat
the ore, citing the factors to which gold is extracted and its conditions and how they vary.

22 | P a g e
  Continuously consulting the supervisor and different mineral and mining engineers for
more detail on how to write the project and the means of collecting the engineering data
required to conclude. Finally, the training officers, the engineers in charge of the mineral
processing laboratory, and the chemistry technicians were found where the project was
undertaken so that everything was written and done as should be done.
 Generally, two parameters, pH and the concentration of reagents were used as the
reference because of the shortage of Time. Hence, one would opt for other parameters to
solve the same problem and approach the desired conclusions.

Experimental Plan

 Design of experiment (DOE) using the Design Expert 13 software was used to randomize
and design the experiment, yield the optimum recovery for both reagents, and minimize
the number of experiments required to complete the study.
 A short survey was done of the sample preparations to see whether the ball mills for
grinding the sample, the sieves for sieving, leaching tanks, and driving rolling mills
whether they properly functioned for the experiment to take place so that errors were
minimized during the experimentation
 The collection of the sample was done, and the leaching started. Nevertheless, first, the
sample was sampled by using sieves.

The following were the principal methodologies implemented for the completion of this thesis;
 Consultations
 Literature Review
 Experimentation

7.4.1: Consultation
This project was done at the SMB laboratory, with the aid of plant metallurgists, with the idea of
how to conduct the project. Also, consulting laboratory technicians on the description of sample
collection and how to perform the sample analysis, instrumentation, and result reading were
obtained. After this, the results were compared with the manufacturer's price to obtain more
economically viable products.

23 | P a g e
7.4.2: Literature review
For several years mathematical models have been extensively studied to obtain predictions for
the kinetics of leaching reactions. Several rate equations have been published based on different
experimental conditions. Some of them are mechanistic rate equations, and some are empirical
ones. The first comprehensive study on the variation of the rate of gold dissolution with Cyanide
and oxygen concentration has been described since 1966. However, the limitation of the equation
in modelling industrial gold cyanidation is due to the difficulty in measuring the exact surface
area of gold in the ore and the Nernst boundary layer thickness (Ling, 1996).

Additionally, numerous researchers have claimed that two expressions can be derived from the
electrochemical mechanism of gold leaching and the shrinking core model with surface
passivation (Crundwell, 1997). However, the gold leaching process often appears far from an
optimum range. For example, excessive reagent consumption is expected, and the behaviour of
the process is very dependent on feed mineralogy (Ling, 1996). Therefore, it is evident that a
simple rate equation with a minimum number of adjustable parameters is still needed to model
gold leaching by the two reagents. This work aims to study the effect of leaching parameters on
gold cyanidation and their limitations. The primary purpose is to find the critical factors that
impact the reaction kinetics and optimize the gold leaching process by gathering information
from existing cyanide leaching processes. The Modest (Model Estimation) computer software is
used for the parameter estimation of mechanistic mathematical models.

7.4.2.1: Cyanide
Chemistry of cyanide solutions Simple cyanide salts, for example, sodium cyanide (NaCN),
potassium cyanide (KCN), and calcium cyanide [Ca(C.N.)2] have been widely used as sources of
cyanide leaching. They dissolve and ionize in water to form their respective metal cation and free
cyanide ions (C.N.-) as presented in Equation 2:

NaCN ↔ Na+ + CN- .Equation 2

Cyanide ions hydrolyze in water to form hydrogen cyanide (HCN) and hydroxyl (O.H. -) ions,
which also increase pH. At pH about 9.3, half of the total Cyanide exists as hydrogen cyanide
and half as free cyanide ions. At higher pH, the total Cyanide considerably exists as free cyanide
ions. Undesirable reactions might occur during leaching because hydrogen cyanide and free
Cyanide can be oxidized with oxygen to form cyanate (CNO-), which does not dissolve gold and

24 | P a g e
thus reduces the free cyanide concentration (Marsden, 2006). Equations 3, 4, and 5 best illustrate
the phenomenon.

CN- + H2O ↔ HCN + OH- .Equation 3

4HCN + 3O2 ↔ 4CNO- + 2H2O .Equation 4
3CN- + 2O2 + H2O ↔ 3CNO- + 2OH- .Equation 5

7.4.2.1.1: Gold dissolution

The oxidation of gold is a prerequisite for its dissolution in an alkaline cyanide solution.
Although gold is inert to oxidation, it is widely accepted that, in the presence of a suitable
complex agent such as Cyanide, gold is oxidized and dissolved to form the stable complex ion
[Au(CN2)-].

During the dissolution reaction, oxygen is reduced, and hydrogen peroxide is formed as an
intermediate product in the first step and becomes the oxidizing agent in the second step, leading
to the following chemical reactions (Equations 6 and 7), which proceed in parallel (Marsden,
2006); (Ling, 1996).

2Au + 4CN- + O2 + 2H2O → 2Au(CN)2- + H2O2 + 2OH- .Equation 6

2Au + 4CN- + H2O2 → 2Au(CN)2- + 2OH- .Equation 7
The summation of the two partial reactions is presented by Equation 8, as proposed by Elsner
(Marsden, 2006):

4Au + 8 CN- + O2 + 2H2O → 4Au(CN)2-+ 4 OH- .Equation 8

This equation is called Elsner's equation and is stoichiometrically correct. However, it does not
wholly describe the cathodic reactions associated with the dissolution (Marsden, 2006).

Figure 17 illustrates the Eh-pH conditions applied in the industrial gold extraction process. This
Pourbaix diagram indicates that the reaction of the Au(I) complex takes place more readily than
the Au(III) complex since the Eh value of the Au(I) complex reaction is more negative than the
other.

25 | P a g e
(Wadsworth, 2000) presented that gold dissolution in alkaline cyanide solution (Au(C.N.)2- ) was
found to occur at the redox potential range of -0.4, and -0.7 V. Figure 17 also indicates that the
potential difference between the lines of gold oxidation and oxygen reduction reactions is
maximized at pH value of about 9.5. The Pourbaix diagram can also explain the role of other
minerals competing with gold cyanidation.

Figure 17: Potential-pH diagram for the system Au-H2O-CN¯ at 25 ºC. Concentrations of all
soluble gold species = 10-4 M (Marsden, 2006).

7.4.2.1: New lime Sulphur YX500 reagent

YX500 is a new type of leaching reagent, a series of high-tech products that can achieve efficient
leaching. YX500 is suitable for various gold-containing ore and materials and related leaching
processes, mainly including gold, silver oxide ore, primary ore, cyanide tailings, gold
concentrate, roasting slag, anode mud, leaching, pool leaching, charcoal pulp, stirring, and other
leaching processes. The dosage can refer to the dosage of sodium cyanide, and it is
recommended to conduct a beneficiation test and refer to its optimal conditions; Corresponding
to the ore, P.H. 10-12, the dosage is 0.5-7 kg/ton.

26 | P a g e
The following ingredients make the chemical:

Component Molecular formula Percentage content

1,3,5-triazine-2,4,6(1H,3H,5H)-trione C3N3Na3O3 73%
Thiourea CH4N2S 21%
Iron carbide CFe3 6%

1) 1,3,5-triazine-2,4,6(1H,3H,5H)-trione

According to (Li Xiao, 2015), 1,3,5- triazines with bulky alkyl substituents were
investigated, and their use as building blocks for preparing chiral thiourea organocatalysts
was explored. His study concluded that 1,3,5- triazines as readily available building blocks
for preparing new types of chiral organocatalysts of the Takemoto type. Furthermore,
triazineamines were successfully converted to isothiocyanates, and the latter was found to
react with amines to form the desired thiourea derivatives.

2) Thiourea and iron carbide

Thiourea has been widely investigated for gold recovery from ores and, more recently, the
recovery of gold from e-waste. The following section outlines the chemistry of gold leaching
using thiourea, including competing reactions that can hinder gold dissolution.
Thiourea is soluble in aqueous acidic solutions and can solubilize gold by adding an oxidant.
Equation 9 shows the overall reaction (Chen CK, 1979).

Au + 2CS(NH2)2 → Au[CS(NH2)2]2+ + e− .Equation 9

The gold leaching's most effective oxidant and conditions were determined to be iron (III)
and sulfuric acid, as shown in Equation 10 (Takami Kai, 1997).

Au + 2CS(NH2)2 + Fe3+ → Au[CS((NH2)2] 2+ + Fe2+ .Equation 10

27 | P a g e
 Thiourea readily oxidizes to formamidine disulfide, via a reversible reaction, in the presence
of an oxidant. In a system with iron (III), the oxidation of thiourea to formamidine disulfide
is shown in Equation 11. Formamidine disulfide is unstable in acidic conditions and will
further decompose cyanamide and elemental sulfur, as shown in Equation 12 (Takami Kai,
1997).

2CS(NH2)2 + 2Fe3+ ↔ (CS(NH2)(NH))2 + 2H+ + 2Fe2+ .Equation 11

(CS(NH2)(NH))2 → CS(NH2)2 + NH2CN + S0 .Equation 12

The further decomposition of formamidine disulfide to elemental sulfur has been proposed to
reduce gold leaching efficiency as the sulfur forms a passivation layer on the gold surface
(Sebastián Camelino, 2015). Loss of thiourea in solution occurs not only via decomposition
but in sulfuric acid systems using iron (III) as the oxidant. Thiourea will also react to form an
iron sulfate complex, as shown in Equation 13 (Hiskey, 1984).

Fe3+ + SO2−4 + CS(NH2)2 → [FeSO4(CS(NH2)2)]+ .Equation 13

Two other forms of iron thiourea complexes can also be generated without adding sulfate, as
shown in Equations 14 and 15 (Jishan Li, 2006).

Fe3+ + CS(NH2)2 → [FeCS(NH2)23+] .Equation 14

Fe3+ + 2CS(NH2)2 → [Fe(CS(NH2)2)23+] .Equation 15

The essential reactions to note for gold leaching are shown in Equations 9 and 10.
Equations 11 to 15 show the competing reactions that can coincide in a gold-leaching system
using iron (III) and sulfuric acid. The competing reactions hinder gold dissolution by either
consuming thiourea or encouraging its oxidation to irreversible products.

The Pourbaix diagram for a thiourea system with H 2O2 oxidant is shown in Figure 18. This
shows that the gold-thiourea complex's stability depends on a low pH and a potential
between 0.2 V and 0.6 V (Ranjbar R, 2017).

28 | P a g e
 Figure 18: The Pourbaix diagram of the gold-thiourea complex in a H2O2 system (Ranjbar R,
2017)

29 | P a g e
7.4.3: Experimentation
This section consists of equipment or tools, samples, and procedures used during the experiment.

7.4.3.1: Equipment used.

Different equipment were used. They included digital beam balance, simple plastic bags for
sample handling sieves, stopwatches, round-bottomed flasks, funnel, filter papers, beakers,
leaching bottles, spatulas, analytical balance, ovens, furnaces, hammers, crucibles, bottle rolling
machines, rotary splitter, digital pH meter, pressure filter pressing machine, sieves, and Atomic
Absorption Spectrometer.

7.4.3.2: The Chemicals and Reagents.

The following are some water reagents:
Water, Sodium Cyanide, New Lime Sulphur YX500, pH activator (lime), Hydrogen Peroxide,
Activated Carbon, and a sample of Gold ore.

7.4.3.3: The Experimental Setup

The experiment will be set where the bottle consisting of the slurry with necessary reagents will
rotate depending on the varying parameters set.

7.4.3.4: The Experimental Procedures.

1. Main sample collection

The sample used for this thesis was collected from the cyclone overflow. The sample was
measured to have a grade of 0.87g/t of gold.

After collection, the sample was filtered in a 106 microns sieve to obtain a 100% passing of
slurry under 106 microns. Then, the sample was taken into the pressure filtering machine to press
out all the solution remaining separate solid and liquid solution samples.

Afterwards, the solid sample was dried in an oven at 105°C for 24 hours to remove all the
moisture from the solid part. Then, a small portion of the solid sample was collected with the
liquid sample pressed from the pressure filter pressing machine, then the fire assay method was

30 | P a g e
used to obtain gold pellets, and finally, the gold assays of the feed were measured using the AAS
machine.

2. Experimental setup

The homogenized sample was divided into a proper ratio using a rotary splitter rotating at 40
revolutions per minute. The sample was then used to make a 45% solid slurry in every
experiment by mixing 200 grams of the dried sample with 245 milliliters of water.

After this, the slurry samples were prepared by first ranging the pH from 10 to 10.5 using the
addition of lime and measuring the pH using a digital pH meter machine. This was done to
minimize the formation of HCN by Cyanide, and the new lime sulphur guidebook recommends a
pH ranging from 10 to11.

First, calculations were done to ensure that the correct reagent weights equivalents were added
inside each bottle. After this, 2 milliliters of hydrogen peroxide and 8 grams of activated carbon
were added to the mixture. Then the leaching reagents were added, where Cyanide ranged from
an equivalent 160ppm to 220ppm by placing 0.05g and 0.07g, respectively, while the new lime
sulphur ranged from an equivalent 0.8 kg/ton of ore to 4.0 kg/ton of ore by placing 0.16g and
0.8g respectively for each part of the experiment.

Finally, the bottles were placed on a bottle rolling machine, a stopwatch was started, and
leaching was allowed to take part for a fixed time of 24 hours.

3. Results reading

After 24 hours, leaching was stopped, and the loaded carbon was separated from the slurry using
a 1 mm sieve. Next, the slurry was separated into solid and solution parts using the pressure filter
pressing machine.

31 | P a g e
The following were the procedures for reading all the assays:

 Carbon
The collected carbon was dried for 24 hours at 105°C, and 1 gram of the sample was
heated in a furnace at 600°C for 4 hours. After which, an aqua regia of 3 parts HCl (45
mls) and 1 part nitric acid (15mls) was added, and the mixture was then heated for 15
minutes.
Finally, the mixture was diluted with distilled water to 250 mls, and the AAS was used to
obtain the readings of the gold assays in the carbon.

 Solid sample
The solid sample was first dried for 24 hours at 105°C. After drying, the sample was
pulverized in a pulverizer, and 30-30.8 grams of the sample were mixed with 150 grams
of flux. The mixture was then placed in a crucible and heated in a furnace at 1100°C for
one hour.
The molten mixture is poured into a metal mould where the Pb collects beneath the slag
as a small cone and is separated from the slag by a hummer. The Lead button is then
collected and placed inside a cupel and heated in a furnace at 1100°C for one hour.
The result is a small bead in the bottom of the cupel, mixed with 1 mls of HCl and heated
for 15 minutes. Then 1 mls of Nitric acid is added and heated for 15 minutes. Finally, 8
mls of distilled water is added, and the resulting mixture is assayed using the AAS
machine.

 Liquid solution
50 mls of the solution was measured, and 5 mls of KCl were added together with 5 mls of
Diiobutyl ketone (DIBK).
After this, the mixture was shaken and allowed to settle. Then the AAS machine was
used to determine the gold assay in the solution.

A Varian 50B model makes the AAS machine used at SBM.

32 | P a g e
33 | P a g e
 7.5: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
7.5.1: Results
After the experiments were done and the calculations associated with the recoveries were
completed, the following results were obtained with their respective graphs in each experiment.
Each result was shown depending on the pH and the corresponding reagent used.

The Head grade of the sample collected was measured to be 0.87 g/t.

7.5.1.1: Cyanide results

Tables 1 and 2 show the build information design summary and the variable parameters. Finally,
the leaching results of cyanide leaching are displayed in Table 3.

1. Design setup:

The design of the experiment was performed using Design expert 13

Table 1: Design summary, central composite

File Version 13.0.1.0

Study Type Response Surface Subtype Randomized
Design Type Central Composite Runs 13.00
Design Model Quadratic Blocks No Blocks
Build Time (ms) 12.00

Table 2: Variable parameters design summary

Facto Name Units Type SubType Minimu Maximum Code Coded Mean Std.
r m d Low High Dev.

A cyanide ppm Numeri Continuous 147.57 232.43 -1 ↔ +1 ↔ 190.00 24.49

c 160.00 220.00

B pH Numeri Continuous 9.90 10.60 -1 ↔ +1 ↔ 10.25 0.2041

c 10.00 10.50

34 | P a g e
Table 3: Cyanide leaching results (DOE by Design expert 13)

Std Run Factor 1 Factor 2 Response

Cyanide (ppm) PH Recovery(%)
2 1 220.00 10.00 91.12
9 2 190.00 10.25 89.96
7 3 190.00 9.90 87.69
3 4 160.00 10.50 85.34
1 5 160.00 10.00 86.89
8 6 190.00 10.60 90.02
10 7 190.00 10.25 88.07
13 8 190.00 10.25 88.55
4 9 220.00 10.50 92.10
6 10 232.43 10.25 92.70
12 11 190.00 10.25 87.87
11 12 190.00 10.25 89.65
5 13 147.57 10.25 83.56

The design response is well-modelled by a linear function of the independent variables. Then the
approximating function is the first-order model, as shown in Table 4, which summarizes the fit
summary for the recovery.

Table 4: Fit summary for response (recovery)

Source Sequential p- Lack of Fit p- Adjusted Predicted

value value R² R²
Linear < 0.0001 0.5652 0.8763 0.8181 Suggested
2FI 0.1774 0.6396 0.8890 0.8101
Quadrati 0.7259 0.4835 0.8697 0.7019
c
Cubic 0.3019 0.6070 0.8871 0.7148 Aliased

35 | P a g e
 2. Regression model:

The linear regression model for all variable parameters obtained were significant terms. The
actual and empirical relationships were developed between models and process parameters as
expressed in the final equation below, where the A- Cyanide concentration (ppm) and B-pH
response surface for all the models were constructed and are considered reasonable. Below is the
regression model for the response (Actual values).

Recovery = 55.8326 + 0.0996A + 1.3626B

The equation in terms of essential factors can be used to predict the response for given levels of
each factor. Here, the levels should be specified in the original units for each factor. This
equation should not be used to determine the relative impact of each factor because the
coefficients are scaled to accommodate the units of each factor, and the intercept is not at the
center of the design space.

Our objective here was to lead the experiment rapidly and efficiently along a path of
improvement toward the general vicinity of the optimum. Once the optimum region has been
found, a more elaborate model, such as the second-order model, may be employed, and analysis
may be performed to locate the optimum. Since it is a first-order model, the steepest ascent
method can be employed to reach the optimum value (Douglas, 2012). However, further tests
proved not economically viable as further addition of large reagents concentration produced a
tiny increase in the recovery.

36 | P a g e
 3. Model development using design expert 13

Factor Coding: Actual

3D Surface

R1
Design Points:
Above Surface 94
Below Surface
92
83.56 92.7
90

X1 = A 88

X2 = B
86
R1

84

82

10.5
10.4
10.3 220
210
B: pH 10.2 200
190
10.1 180
170
A: cyanide (ppm)
10 160

Figure 19: Model development (developed using design expert 13)

The surface plots of the response of a process against other independent variables can provide
valuable insights into not only the individual effect of operating factors but the potential
interaction between them as well (Douglas, 2012). Thus, the surface plots for the studied
leaching experiments were presented. As shown in Figure 20, the surface response plots illustrate
the linear effects of interactions between two variables. For example, the interaction between pH
and cyanide concentration shows that both reagents can obtain maximum gold recovery at a high
level. As seen in Figure 20, the model is linear, with the highest peak at a response (recovery) of
92.7%, a minimum of 83.56%, and a mean recovery of 88.73%.

37 | P a g e
 From the model prediction:

Table 5 shows the point prediction of the model.

Characteristics:

Two-sided Confidence = 95% Population = 99%

Table 5: Point Prediction

Analysi Predicte Predicte Observe Std Dev S.E. 95% 95% 95% 95%
s d Mean d d Mean CI low CI T.I. T.I.
Median for high low for high
Mean for 99% for
Mean Pop 99%
Pop
R1 88.7323 88.7323 0.91238 0.25304 88.168 89.296 84.529 92.934
1 9 5 1 7 9

4. ANOVA table

Table 6: ANOVA table for the response

Source Sum of Squares df Mean F-value p-value

Square
Model 72.42 2 36.21 43.50 < 0.0001 significant
A-cyanide 71.50 1 71.50 85.89 < 0.0001
B-pH 0.9283 1 0.9283 1.12 0.3158
Residual 8.32 10 0.8324
Lack of Fit 4.80 6 0.7997 0.9071 0.5652 not significant
Pure Error 3.53 4 0.8816
Cor Total 80.75 12

Table 6 shows the ANOVA response characteristics of our design as follows:

 Basic information:

Factor coding is Coded.

The Sum of squares is Type III – Partial

38 | P a g e
  Description:
The Model F-value of 43.50 implies that the model is significant. There is only a 0.01%
chance that a large F-value could occur due to noise.
P-values less than 0.0500 indicate that model terms are significant. According to Fisher's
F-test and marginal probability value (p model < 0.0001), shown in Table 6, all of the
suggested prediction models are significant. In this case, A is a significant model term.
Values greater than 0.1000 indicate that the model terms are not significant. If there are
many insignificant model terms (not counting those required to support hierarchy), model
reduction may improve your model.
The Lack of Fit F-value of 0.91 implies that the Lack of Fit is not significant relative to
the pure error. There is a 56.52% chance that a Lack of Fit F-value this large could occur
due to noise. Non-significant lack of fit is good -- we want the model to fit.

A typical normal probability plot is an effective tool for assessing the significance of a predictive
model, the residuals of a typical normal probability plot (Douglas, 2012). According to the
normal probability plots shown in Figure 21, all responses were relatively uniform, confirming
the assumptions of normality and the independent nature of residuals during the statistical
analyses. In addition, the high values of the adjusted correlation coefficients also indicate the
significance of the prediction models

39 | P a g e
 Normal Plot of Residuals

99

95

90

80
Normal % Probability

70

50

30

20

10

-2.00 -1.00 0.00 1.00 2.00

Internally Studentized Residuals

Figure 20: Normal probability plot

Table 7: Fit statitsics

Std. Dev. 0.912 R² 0.8969

4
Mean 88.73 Adjusted R² 0.8763
C.V. % 1.03 Predicted R² 0.8181
Adeq Precision 19.2920

The Predicted R2 values were reasonably high, indicating that the model can explain variability
in the prediction of new observations with adequate accuracy, which is in reasonable agreement
with the Adjusted R2 values. These values show an adequate signal so that the models can be
used to navigate the design space and predict appropriately. As shown in Table 7, the Predicted

40 | P a g e
 R² of 0.8181 is in reasonable agreement with the Adjusted R² of 0.8763; i.e., the difference is
less than 0.2. Another statistical measure, called Adeq precision, shows the signal-to-noise ratio,
and any value over 4 is considered desirable. In this investigation, the ratio was 19.292 for the
gold recovery using Cyanide as the leaching reagent.

7.5.1.2: New lime sulphur YX500 results

Tables 8 and 9 show the build information design summary and the variable parameters. Finally,
the leaching results of new lime sulphur leaching using the Design of the Experiment are
displayed in Table 10.

1. Design setup:

Table 8: Build information

File Version 13.0.1.0

Study Type Response Surface Subtype Randomized
Design Type Central Composite Runs 13.00
Design Model Quadratic Blocks No Blocks

Table 9: Variable parameters design Summary

Factor Name Units Type SubType Minimu Maximum Coded Coded Mean Std.
m Low High Dev.
A YX500 Kg/ton Numeric Continuous 0.1373 4.66 -1 ↔ +1 ↔ 2.40 1.31
concentration 0.80 4.00
B pH Numeric Continuous 9.90 10.60 -1 ↔ +1 ↔ 10.25 0.2041
10.00 10.50

41 | P a g e
Table 10: New Lime Sulphur YX500 (DOE design by design expert 13)

Std Run Factor 1 Factor 2 Response

YX500 (kg/ton) PH Recovery(%)
10 1 2.40 10.25 83.63
3 2 0.80 10.50 90.57
5 3 0.14 10.25 73.20
9 4 2.40 10.25 82.76
1 5 0.80 10.00 81.44
13 6 2.40 10.25 80.89
7 7 2.40 9.90 81.01
6 8 4.66 10.25 96.38
12 9 2.40 10.25 86.32
11 10 2.40 10.25 86.46
4 11 4.00 10.50 96.23
8 12 2.40 10.60 88.67
2 13 4.00 10.00 86.89

As shown in Table 11, which summarizes the fit summary for the recovery, the design response
is well-modelled by a linear function of the independent variables, and then the approximating
function is the first-order model.

Table 11: Fit summary for response (recovery)

Source Sequential p- Lack of Fit p- Adjusted Predicted

value value R² R²
Linear 0.0022 0.1201 0.6486 0.4323 Suggested
2FI 0.9796 0.0925 0.6096 -0.0505
Quadrati 0.5303 0.0629 0.5812 -0.4803
c
Cubic 0.1368 0.0784 0.7355 -3.1650 Aliased

42 | P a g e
 2. Regression model

The linear regression model for all variable parameters obtained were significant terms. The
actual and empirical relationships were developed between models and process parameters as
expressed in the final equation below, where the A- New lime sulphur YX500 concentration
(kg/ton) and B-pH response surface for all the models were constructed and are considered
reasonable. Below is the regression model for the response (Actual values).

Recovery = -72.6799 + 3.4290A+ 14.6514B

The equation in terms of fundamental factors can be used to predict the response for given levels
of each factor. Here, the levels should be specified in the original units for each factor.

Our objective here was to lead the experiment rapidly and efficiently along a path of
improvement toward the general vicinity of the optimum. Once the optimum region has been
found, a more elaborate model, such as the second-order model, may be employed, and analysis
may be performed to locate the optimum. Since it is a first-order model, the steepest ascent
method can be employed to reach the optimum value (Douglas, 2012). However, further tests
proved not economically viable as further addition of large reagents concentration produced a
very small increase in the recovery.

43 | P a g e
 3. Model development using Design expert 13

Factor Coding: Actual

3D Surface

R1
Design Points:
Above Surface
100
Below Surface
95
73.2 96.38
90

X1 = A 85

X2 = B
80
R1

75

70

10.5
10.4
10.3 4
3.2
B: pH 10.2
2.4
10.1 1.6
10 0.8 A: YX500 concentra tion (Kg/ ton)

Figure 21: Model development (Developed using design expert 13)

The surface plots of the response of a process against other independent variables can provide
valuable insights into not only the individual effect of operating factors but the potential
interaction between them as well (Douglas, 2012). As shown in Figure 22, the surface response
plots illustrate the linear effects of interactions between two variables. For example, the
interaction between pH and new lime Sulphur YX500 concentration shows that both reagents
can obtain maximum gold recovery at a high level. Thus, the surface plots for the studied
leaching experiments were presented.

As seen in Figure 22, the model is linear, with the highest peak at a response (recovery) of
96.38%, a minimum of 73.20%, and a mean of 85.73%.

44 | P a g e
 From the model prediction:

Table 5 shows the point prediction of the model.

Characteristics:

Two-sided Confidence = 95% Population = 99%

Table 12: Point prediction

Analysis Predicted Predicted Observed Std S.E. 95% CI 95% CI 95% T.I. 95%
Mean Median Dev Mean low for high for low for T.I.
Mean Mean 99% Pop high for
99%
Pop
R1 85.7269 85.7269 3.7969 1.0531 83.3805 88.0733 68.2375 103.2163

4. ANOVA table

Table 13: ANOVA for Linear model

Source Sum of df Mean F- p-

Squares Square value value
Model 348.1399 2 174.0699 12.0741 0.0022 significant
A-YX500 240.8076 1 240.8076 16.7033 0.0022
concentration
B-pH 107.3323 1 107.3323 7.4449 0.0212
Residual 144.1681 10 14.4168
Lack of Fit 121.3882 6 20.2313 3.5525 0.1201 not
significant
Pure Error 22.7799 4 5.69497

45 | P a g e
 Cor Total 492.3081 12

Table 13 shows the ANOVA response characteristics of our design as follows:

 Basic information:

Factor coding is Coded.

The Sum of squares is Type III – Partial

 Description:

The Model F-value of 12.07 implies that the model is significant. There is only a 0.22%
chance that a large F-value could occur due to noise.

P-values less than 0.0500 indicate that model terms are significant. In this case, A and B are
significant model terms. Values greater than 0.1000 indicate that the model terms are not
significant. If there are many insignificant model terms (not counting those required to
support hierarchy), model reduction may improve your model.

The Lack of Fit F-value of 3.55 implies that the Lack of Fit is not significant relative to the
pure error. There is a 12.01% chance that a Lack of Fit F-value this large could occur due to
noise. Non-significant lack of fit is good -- we want the model to fit.

A typical normal probability plot is an effective tool for assessing the significance of a predictive
model, the residuals of a typical normal probability plot (Douglas, 2012). According to the
normal probability plots shown in Figure 23, all responses were relatively uniform, confirming
the assumptions of normality and the independent nature of residuals during the statistical
analyses. In addition, the high values of the adjusted correlation coefficients also indicate the
significance of the prediction models.

46 | P a g e
 Normal Plot of Residuals

99

95

90

80
Normal % Probability

70

50

30

20

10

-2.00 -1.00 0.00 1.00 2.00

Internally Studentized Residuals

Figure 22: Normal probability plot

Table 14: Fit statistics

Std. 3.80 R² 0.7072

Dev.
Mean 85.73 Adjusted R² 0.6486
C.V. % 4.43 Predicted R² 0.4323
Adeq Precision 10.0321

The Predicted R² of 0.4323 is not as close to the Adjusted R² of 0.6486 as one might expect;
i.e., the difference is more than 0.2. This may indicate a significant block effect or a possible
problem with the model and data. Things to consider are model reduction, response
transformation, outliers, etcetera.

47 | P a g e
Adeq Precision measures the signal-to-noise ratio. A ratio greater than 4 is desirable. The ratio
of 10.032 indicates an adequate signal. This model can be used to navigate the design space.

Our objective here was to lead the experiment rapidly and efficiently along a path of
improvement toward the general vicinity of the optimum. Once the optimum region has been
found, a more elaborate model, such as the second-order model, may be employed, and analysis
may be performed to locate the optimum. Since it is a first-order model, the steepest ascent
method can be employed to reach the optimum value (Douglas, 2012). However, further tests
proved not economically viable as further addition of large reagents concentration produced a
minimal increase in the recovery.

7.5.2: Economic analysis of the two reagents

Using a basis of 47000 tonnes per month of ore processed, the economic analysis considers the
maximum recovery of gold recovered from the two reagents.

For the maximum recovery of 96.46% for New lime Sulphur YX500 and 92.10% for Cyanide,
the net profits were found to be 4.3083 billion Tsh and 4.7604 billion Tsh, respectively, as
clearly illustrated in Figure 23 and Figure 24.

Cyanide Net Profit graph

4.8

4.75
Net profit (billion Tanzanian shilings)

4.7

4.65

4.6

4.55

4.5

4.45

4.4
85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93
Gold Recovery (%)

Figure 23: Cyanide Net Profit graph

48 | P a g e
 YX500 Net Profit graph
4.7

4.5
Net profit (billion Tanzanian shillings)

4.3

4.1

3.9

3.7

3.5
80 82 84 86 88 90 92 94 96 98 100

Gold Recovery (%)

Figure 24: YX500 Net Profit graph

7.6: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

As illustrated in Figure 23 and Figure 24, comparing the net profit of the two reagents at a gold
recovery of 90%, the net profit was found to be 4.612 billion Tanzanian shillings for the New
lime Sulphur YX500 and 4.655 billion Tanzanian shillings for Cyanide which is a difference of
over 43 million Tsh in favour of Sodium Cyanide.

Thus for the same recovery, it is more economically viable to use Cyanide as it yields a better net
profit than the New Lime Sulphur YX500. This is mainly due to requiring a large dosage of
YX500 as compared to Cyanide leading to very high reagent prices.

Thus further analysis and optimization are needed for better results using the New Lime Sulphur
YX500, but until then, Cyanide is a better choice from an economic point of view.

49 | P a g e
REFERENCES
C. Marion, R. L. (2019). A design of experiments investigation into the processing of fine low specific
gravity minerals using a laboratory Knelson Concentrator. Minerals Engineering.

Chen CK, L. T. (1979). A study of the leaching of gold and silver by acidothioureation. Mining Research
and Service Organisation, Taipei Taiwan, 207–212.

Crundwell, F. &. (1997). A Mathematical Model of the Leaching of. Hydrometallurgy.

Douglas, M. (2012). Design and Analysis of experiments Eithth edition. Arizona State: John Wiley & Sons,
Inc.

GRAY. (2012). MINERAL PROCESSING. CHICAGO: GLOBAL PUIBLISHR.

Hiskey, J. (1984). Thiourea leaching of gold and silver – technology update and additional applications.
Min Metall Explor, 173-179.

Jishan Li, J. D. (2006). A REVIEW OF GOLD LEACHING IN ACID THIOUREA SOLUTIONS. Miner Process Extr
Metall Rev 27, 177-214.

K.L.Rees, J. D. (2000). Preg-robbing phenomena in the cyanidation of sulphide gold ores. Department of
Chemical Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, 3010, Australia.

Li Xiao, A. P. (2015). L. 2-Amino-1,3,5-triazine chemistry: hydrogen-bond networks, Takemoto thiourea

catalyst analogs, and olfactory mapping of a sweet-smelling triazine. Monatshefte für Chemie -
Chemical Monthly.

Ling, P. e. (1996). An Improved Rate Equation for Cyanidation of a Gold Ore. Canadian Metallurgical
Quarterly, 225-234.

Marsden, J. a. (2006). The chemistry of gold extraction. West Sussex: Society for mining, metallurgy and
exploration.

Ranjbar R, N. M. (2017). Hydrochemically separation of gold from copper anode slime by means of
thiourea solution. Adv Mater Process., 22-31.

Sebastián Camelino, J. R. (2015). Initial Studies about Gold Leaching from Printed Circuit Boards (PCB's)
of Waste Cell Phones. Department of Metallurgical Engineering, National Technological
University, Regional Faculty Córdoba, Maestro M. López esq. Cruz Roja Argentina, Ciudad
Universitaria, Córdoba Capital, 5000, Argentina, 105-112.

Takami Kai, T. H. (1997). Reduction of Thiourea Consumption in Gold Extraction by Acid Thiourea
Solutions. Department of Applied Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Kagoshima University, 1-
21-40 Korimoto, Kagoshima 890, Japan, 2757–2759.

Tulawaka Process Manual. (2004). Kagera.

Wadsworth, M. e. (2000). Gold Dissolution and Activation in Cyanide. Hydrometallurgy, 1-11.

Wills, B. .. (2006). Will's mineral processing technology: An introduction to the practical aspect of ore
treatment and mineral recovery. Burlington, Massachusetts: Butterworth-Heinemann (Elsevier).

50 | P a g e
51 | P a g e
APPENDIX
1. RECOVERY CALCULATIONS
Table 15: Sodium cyanide waste solution and carbon assay AAS reading

Concentration pH Solution Solution Carbon AAS Carbon

(ppm) AAS reading assay (ppm) reading assay (ppm)

160 10 0.02 0.002 0.05 12.5

160 10.5 0.03 0.003 0.07 17.5
220 10 0.04 0.004 0.04 10
220 10.5 0.02 0.002 0.06 15
147.57 10.25 0.05 0.005 0.06 15
232.43 10.25 0.02 0.002 0.07 17.5
190 9.90 0.03 0.003 0.06 15
190 10.60 0.02 0.002 0.07 17.5
190 10.25 0.03 0.003 0.06 15
190 10.25 0.02 0.002 0.06 15
190 10.25 0.04 0.004 0.05 12.5
190 10.25 0.03 0.003 0.06 15
190 10.25 0.04 0.004 0.05 12.5

Table 16: New lime sulphur YX500 waste solution and carbon assay AAS readings

Concentration pH Solution Solution Carbon Carbon

(ppm) AAS assay (ppm) AAS assay (ppm)
reading reading
0.8 10 0.28 0.028 0.05 7.5
0.8 10.5 0.38 0.038 0.07 10
4 10 0.13 0.013 0.04 10
4 10.5 0.02 0.002 0.06 12.5
0.14 10.25 0.42 0.042 0.03 7.5
4.66 10.25 0.07 0.007 0.05 12.5
2.4 9.90 0.24 0.024 0.04 10
2.4 10.60 0.31 0.031 0.05 12.5
2.4 10.25 0.25 0.025 0.11 27.5
2.4 10.25 0.05 0.005 0.06 15
2.4 10.25 0.09 0.009 0.07 17.5
2.4 10.25 0.21 0.021 0.04 10
2.4 10.25 0.06 0.006 0.05 12.5

Waste solution Assay:

52 | P a g e
solution assay ( ppm ) =solution AAS reading ×0.1

Carbon Assay:
Carbon assay ( ppm )=Carbon AASreading × 250

Consider from Table 15 a concentration of 160 and a pH of 10.5:

solutionassay ( ppm ) =0.03 ×0.1=0.003 ppm of gold
Carbon assay ( ppm )=0.07× 250=17.5 ppm of gold

Table 17: Cyanide solid waste solution AAS reading

Concentration pH Sample Solid Solid Assay

(ppm) weight (g) AAS reading (ppm)

160 10 30.7 0.12 0.117

160 10.5 30.5 0.13 0.128
220 10 30.6 0.08 0.078
220 10.5 30.3 0.07 0.069
147.57 10.25 30.4 0.06 0.062
232.43 10.25 30.4 0.11 0.111
190 9.90 30.8 0.09 0.088
190 10.60 30.7 0.09 0.092
190 10.25 30.2 0.09 0.089
190 10.25 30.5 0.11 0.109
190 10.25 30.3 0.10 0.101
190 10.25 30.2 0.11 0.109
190 10.25 30.3 0.06 0.062

Table 18: New lime sulphur YX500 waste solid assay AAS readings

Concentration pH Sample Solid Solid Assay

(ppm) weight (g) AAS reading (ppm)

53 | P a g e
 0.8 10 30.6 0.15 0.147
0.8 10.5 30.3 0.05 0.050
4 10 30.5 0.11 0.108
4 10.5 30.5 0.03 0.030
0.14 10.25 30.6 0.22 0.213
4.66 10.25 30.4 0.03 0.027
2.4 9.90 30.6 0.16 0.154
2.4 10.60 30.7 0.08 0.074
2.4 10.25 30.3 0.12 0.121
2.4 10.25 15.7 0.08 0.153
2.4 10.25 30.8 0.12 0.114
2.4 10.25 30.7 0.11 0.108
2.4 10.25 30.5 0.10 0.099

Waste solid Assay:

AAS reading × Expected weight
Solid assay ppm=
Actual weight

Consider in Table 17 a concentration of 160 and a pH of 10.5:

0.13× 30
Solid assay ppm= =0.128 ppm of gold
30.5

54 | P a g e
Table 19: Sodium cyanide recovery

Concentration pH Solid Solution Tailings Carbon Recovery

(ppm) Assay Assay (t) Assay (c) (%)
(ppm) (ppm)
160 10 0.117 0.002 0.119 12.5 86.89
160 10.5 0.128 0.003 0.131 17.5 85.34
220 10 0.078 0.004 0.082 10 91.12
220 10.5 0.069 0.002 0.071 15 92.10
147.57 10.25 0.062 0.005 0.067 15 83.56
232.43 10.25 0.111 0.002 0.113 17.5 92.70
190 9.90 0.088 0.003 0.091 15 87.69
190 10.60 0.092 0.002 0.094 17.5 90.02
190 10.25 0.089 0.003 0.092 15 89.75
190 10.25 0.109 0.002 0.111 15 89.96
190 10.25 0.101 0.004 0.105 12.5 88.07
190 10.25 0.109 0.003 0.112 15 88.55
190 10.25 0.062 0.004 0.067 12.5 87.87

Table 20: New lime sulphur YX500 recovery

Concentration pH Solid Solution Tailings Carbon Recovery

(ppm) Assay Assay (t) Assay (c) (%)
(ppm) (ppm)

0.8 10 0.147 0.028 0.175 7.5 81.44

0.8 10.5 0.050 0.038 0.088 10 90.57
4 10 0.108 0.013 0.121 10 86.89
4 10.5 0.030 0.002 0.035 12.5 96.23
0.14 10.25 0.213 0.042 0.255 7.5 73.20
4.66 10.25 0.027 0.007 0.034 12.5 96.38
2.4 9.90 0.154 0.024 0.178 10 81.01
2.4 10.60 0.074 0.031 0.105 12.5 88.67
2.4 10.25 0.121 0.025 0.146 27.5 83.63
2.4 10.25 0.153 0.005 0.158 15 82.76
2.4 10.25 0.114 0.009 0.123 17.5 86.46
2.4 10.25 0.108 0.021 0.129 10 86.32
2.4 10.25 0.099 0.006 0.105 12.5 88.67

55 | P a g e
Tailings:
Tailings=Solid Assay ( ppm)+ Solution Assay ( ppm )

Recovery:
c (f −t )
Recovery= ×100 %
f (c−t )

Consider Table 19 at a concentration of 160ppm and pH of 10.5:

17.5(0.87−0.131)
Recovery= ×100 %=85.34
0.87 (17.5−0.131)

2. ECONOMIC ANALYSIS CALCULATIONS

Table 21: New Lime Sulphur YX500 Net profit table

Concentration pH Recovery Recovered Reagents Net profit

(Kg/tonne of (%) gold price (Billion
ore) (Billion (Billion Tzs)
Tzs) Tzs)
2.4 10.25 83.63 4.3978 0.4512 3.9466
0.8 10.5 90.57 4.7627 0.1504 4.6123
0.14 10.25 73.2 3.8493 0.0263 3.8230
2.4 10.25 82.76 4.3520 0.4512 3.9008
0.8 10 81.44 4.2826 0.1504 4.1322
2.4 10.25 80.89 4.2537 0.4512 3.8025
2.4 9.9 81.01 4.2600 0.4512 3.8088
4.66 10.25 96.38 5.0682 0.8761 4.1921
2.4 10.25 86.32 4.5392 0.4512 4.0880
2.4 10.25 86.46 4.5466 0.4512 4.0954
4 10.5 96.23 5.0603 0.7520 4.3083
2.4 10.6 88.67 4.6628 0.4512 4.2116
4 10 86.89 4.5692 0.7520 3.8172
Table 22: Cyanide Net profit table

Concentration pH Recovery Recovered Reagents Net profit

56 | P a g e
 (ppm) (%) gold price (Billion
(Billion (Billion Tzs)
Tzs) Tzs)
220 10 91.12 4.7916 0.0827 4.7089
190 10.25 89.96 4.7306 0.0714 4.6592
190 9.9 87.69 4.6113 0.0714 4.5398
160 10.5 85.34 4.4877 0.0602 4.4275
160 10 86.89 4.5692 0.0602 4.5090
190 10.6 90.02 4.7338 0.0714 4.6623
190 10.25 88.07 4.6312 0.0714 4.5598
190 10.25 88.55 4.6565 0.0714 4.5850
220 10.5 92.1 4.8432 0.0827 4.7604
232.43 10.25 92.7 4.8747 0.0874 4.7873
190 10.25 87.87 4.6207 0.0714 4.5493
190 10.25 89.65 4.7143 0.0714 4.6429
147.57 10.25 83.56 4.3941 0.0555 4.3386

Basis:
47000 tonnes of ore processed per month
Grade is 0.87g/t
Gold price per ounce is 4 million Tzs
1 ounce = 31.1034 grams
Cyanide price = 8 million Tzs per Tonne
YX500 price = 4 million Tzs per Tonne

Recovered gold price:

Grade× Recovery × Ore processed × Gold price per ounce
Recovered gold price=
31.1034 g

Reagents price:
Reagents Price=Ore processed × Concentration∈tonnes× Reagent price per tonne

57 | P a g e
Net profit:
Net profit=Recovered gold price−Reagents price

Consider Table 21 concentration of 4 kg/tonne and pH of 10:

86.89
0.87 × × 47000 × 4 million Tzs
100
Recovered gold price= =4.569 billion Tzs
31.1034 g

4
Reagents Price=47000 × × 4 million=0.7520 billionTzs
1000

Net profit=4.5692−0.7520=3.8172

58 | P a g e