Applicable Equipment

1/3

Python

Award-winning, portable processing plant for high recoveries by gravity separation.

2/3

Modular Systems

Flexible plant components for versatile, cost-effective flowsheets.

3/3

InLine Pressure Jig

Innovative design that pre-concentrates high-value material.

Applicable Minerals

1/5

Free Gold

Free gold is unbound to other materials and is easy to liberate.

2/5

Sulphide Gold

Gold associated with sulphides requires a modified flowsheet.

3/5

Silver

Free silver and silver complexes behave unpredictably and contain impurities.

Applicable Minerals

4/5

Polymetallics

A combination of different metals in a single compound.

5/5

Other Minerals

Such as tin/tantalum, diamond, garnet and other gemstone-containing material.

Pre-concentration

Recovering mineral-bearing particles into a smaller volume saves energy.

Pre-concentration is one step that Gekko Systems applies, and advocates, to design and deliver world-leading energy-efficient flowsheets.

Simply put, pre-concentration drastically reduces the ore mass that reports to intensive downstream processing. By using gravity to recover mineral-bearing particles into a much smaller volume, significant savings in energy and operational expenses are achieved.

Agile mining operations are actively adopting the concept of pre-concentration to enhance their overall operations. The economic gains made by reducing crushing and comminution energy costs are evident, and traditional milling methods are now being challenged.

Gravity pre-concentration offers a low energy, environmentally safe process.

Benefits

By limiting ore crushing to a coarse particle size, the amount of comminution energy consumed is significantly reduced.

Gravity pre-concentration provides greater gold mass recoveries combined with reduced operating costs for a higher return on investment.

Pre-concentrating high-value material using gravity separation uses less chemical volume in downstream processing which is better for the environment.

Low capital costs, reduced life of mine costs, reduced infrastructure investment and low environmental costs all contribute to accelerated cash flow.

Using gravity to pre-concentrate high-value material is an environmentally friendly, low energy process.

Innovative, modular, gravity separation devices produce a higher-grade concentrated material for intensive downstream processing.

How It Works The Gekko Difference Technical Papers,
Case Studies & Articles

How It Works

The aim is to liberate valuable mineral from an optimal coarse particle size, rather than expend unnecessary energy crushing and grinding the particles to a finer size.

Processing coarse material through a gravity separation device isolates dense mineral-bearing particles into a much smaller mass. This subsequently reduces the amount for intensive processing, therefore maximising equipment life, cutting power costs, saving water, reducing chemicals and boosting recoveries.

Physical separation processes, including blasting techniques, ore sorting, screening, magnetic separation, gravity separation, jigs, may be employed as pre-concentration techniques. Depending on the mineral and specific characteristics of the ore body, a tailored pre-concentration flowsheet may use several devices to prepare the pre-concentrate with the best liberation properties.

The Gekko Difference

Working out the optimal ore size for pre-concentration involves expert scientific analysis and testwork of the ore body. Every ore must be tested.

Gekko’s technical services will put the ore sample through an extensive series of tests to understand its composition and how it will behave for pre-concentration. Then Gekko can design the optimum flowsheet for maximum mineral liberation.

Gekko’s small-scale laboratory tests can be directly scaled up to a full plant scale circuit containing modular Gekko components, such as the InLine Pressure Jig, or the crushing and jig power of the complete Python processing plant.

Because Gekko’s philosophy is to deliver innovative step-change benefits to mining operations, a pre-concentration flowsheet design will produce a significant environmental improvement or a significant improvement in net present value for the life of the mine. In most cases, it does both.

Contact Gekko today to find out how pre-concentration will deliver better returns.

Coarse Gold Separation At Bendigo Minings Kangaroo Flat Operation

Technical Papers (3 of 52)

More Technical Papers

Technical Paper 049 - InLine Pressure Jig Pre Concentration Plant At The Pirquitas Mine

AusIMM Metplant, Perth, Australia. A.H. Gray. G. Delemontex, N. Grigg and T. Yeomans | 01 August 2011

Technical Paper 048 - Coarse Gold Separation At Bendigo Minings Kangaroo Flat Operation

AusIMM Gravity Gold Conference, Ballarat, Australia. M. Braaksma, P. Gray | 04 September 2010

Technical Paper 044 - The Modular Python Processing Plant Designed For Underground Pre Concentration

Minerals and Metallurgical Processing, Australia. T. Hughes and A. Gray | 02 May 2010

L-R Mark Nullemeyer, Dave Burner and Glenn Field

Case Studies (3 of 14)

More Case Studies

Case Study - Ballarat Goldfields

Gekko Systems have recently designed, engineered and built the Stage 1 process plant for Ballarat Goldfields (BGF). | 01 April 2006

Case Study - Minsur

The San Rafael tin mine of MINSUR SA is situated high in the Peruvian Andes at 4500m and has been in operation for the last 30 years in various levels of production and is currently treating 77,000 .. | 01 October 2003

Case Study - Kimberley Diamonds

Kimberley Diamond Company's mining operations are based at its Ellendale Diamond Project, located 140km east of the coastal town Derby in Western Australia's Kimberley Region (2,000km north of Perth). | 01 September 2007