The study found that Red River’s low gold recovery was due to its poor initial feed grade, which is far lower than that expected to be presented to the circuit by Larvotto.
It implies that improving gravity recovery, hence refining the gold float feed concentrate, and expanding the flotation circuit would result in a significant improvement in overall recovery.
Testwork also showed further improvement in the gravity gold recovery circuit would be possible using a multi-gravity gold separator (MGS), which is a more recent and less complex innovation than the Knelson concentrator. Management says the MGS is capable of recovering more than 70 per cent of the gold from the concentrate.
Other proposed upgrades and modifications with minimal flowsheet changes would entail the addition of a secondary crushing circuit, a small re-grind circuit and the provision of an additional fine ore storage bin. Management says major components of the secondary crushing circuit and most of the steelwork is already onsite.
The upshot of the study is that significant upgrades to plant processing throughput, recoveries and overall performance can be achieved with minimal additional cost to improve the winning of both antimony and gold from the ore. It would be expected to significantly decrease production costs, while increasing gold and antimony production.
Following the positive findings, Larvotto is now eyeing more detailed studies to refine the proposed measures and costs to more accurately gauge the likely economic benefits.
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