METSO A413110 Industrial Process Control System

Increasing process control, efficiency, and profitability

Efficient gold recovery and minimizing gold losses in tailings are top priorities for

gold producers. Traditionally, many mines have relied on indirect methods to

estimate gold content, such as measuring copper levels in chalcopyrite ore, or

in Kittilä’s case, using Arsenic as a proxy and estimating the amount of gold from

there. While this approach may work in some instances, it has proved ineffective

for mines like Ada Tepe, where there was no correlation between gold and other

measured elements. For that reason, it was specifically required that a direct

measurement of gold was needed to optimize flotation.

It was important to Ada Tepe to see how much gold they were losing to tailings

in near real-time and take corrective actions to prevent any losses.

Thus, it was a positive surprise for them to learn that the Courier 6G was capable

of measuring gold directly in tailings in very low quantities, such as between 0.2

to 0.8 grams per ton.

Another significant challenge the site was facing was the considerable time

investment required for manual sampling. Before the implementation of the

Courier 6G SL analyzer, the site was relying on someone from the lab to collect

6-7 samples every 2 hours.

“Gold measurement is quite important as there are no other elements we can

correlate to gold,” says Grigoryan. “In the lab, it takes at least four hours

(for sample preparation and assaying) - to obtain results from the sample

taken from the plant. And even then the information might be outdated as the

ore feed and conditions might have changed in the meantime, thus requiring

adjustments based on assumption.”

The demand for accurate and well-maintained elemental analyzers continues

to rise as ore grades decline in the mining industry. In particular, the extraction

of precious metals such as gold presents a significant challenge due to their low

concentration in tailings. To address this issue, the Ada Tepe mine, owned by

Dundee Precious Metals, located in southeastern Bulgaria, sought to improve its

gold recovery and process control, all whilst reducing any losses to tailings.

As the first greenfield mine in the country in four decades – and boasting one of

the highest  open pit gold grades in the world – Ada Tepe required a cutting-edge

solution capable of real-time and reliable elemental analysis measurements.

Specifically designed for on-stream analysis, the Courier® 6G SL analyzer

revolutionizes the direct measurement of gold, platinum, and other valuable metal

concentrations in ore feed, concentrate, and tailings streams. By delivering fast and

accurate elemental analysis data, the analyzer enables mining operations to have

more efficient process control, thus enhancing process stability and maximizing

recovery rates. The typical measurement time for gold in feed is one to five minutes,

for concentrate streams 30 to 60 seconds and in tailings five to 20 minutes due to

lower elemental concentrations. Total cycle time for feed, concentrate and tailings

streams can be as low as 30 minutes, which enables operators to react much faster

to changes in the process.

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