Dear Friends of Gekko,

It’s already Week 2 of our 8 Week Short Information Program. We have had an amazing response from those who enjoyed receiving the first one - thanks for all the feedback. If you haven’t already, get on board - only six weeks to go after this one! As always, we love to hear what you think, so keep in touch.

This week’s topic is …

Pre-concentration for Gold Plants using Gravity and Flotation

At Gekko we call these plants ‘GFIL’ or Gravity Flotation Intensive Leach. The process flowsheet is differentiated by utilising alternative milling technology such as a Vertical Shaft Impactor (VSI) and High Pressure Grinding Roll (HPGR) to optimise liberation of mineral at optimum size and aspect ratio. Liberation, where possible at coarser grind size, significantly reduces power usage and costs.

A benefit of adding the unique InLine Pressure Jig (IPJ) technology to flotation is low-cost coarse mineral recovery (costs per tonne treated of USD 0.02.) The combination of flotation and gravity to concentrate mineral into ~5% of the mass eliminates the standard practice of leaching 100% of the ore with cyanide. In the Gekko flowsheet only ~5% of the ore is treated by cyanide in our high-performance proprietary InLine Leach Reactor (ILR). One of the benefits of the ILR technology is that the concentrates can be fully detoxed. In next week’s email we will cover other benefits.

GFIL flowsheets are popular with small to mid-sized deposits and offer significant reductions in capital and infrastructure set-up costs.

Key Cost and Environmental Benefit Comparisons*



*based on estimates by Gekko for 100 t/hr mill

Disclaimer: Of course mineralogy and metallurgical test work is required on your ore to investigate whether it is amenable to pre-concentration.

Please contact micka@gekkos.com to be connected with your local sales person if you would like to enquire about the potential for a Gekko GFIL pre-concentration plant for you or if you would like to undertake a Test Work Program.

This flowsheet also has potential applications to other minerals such as silver and other base metals.

GFIL is especially suited to mines and ores with the following characteristics

  • Slow environmental permitting due to cyanide use restrictions
  • Limited footprint available
  • Remote locations
  • High forecast capital and operating costs
  • Sulphide associated gold - complex ores
Gekko has recently designed and installed a Gravity/Intensive Leach circuit for Lihir Mining at their Ballarat Goldfields site. Recoveries, availability and operating costs have been excellent. Gekko is also currently commissioning a GFIL plant for Minera Santa Cruz in Southern Argentina.

Yours sincerely

Sandy Gray
Technical Director
Gekko Systems
gekkos@gekkos.com



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