This 25 TPD (1 TPH) gold ore pilot processing plant is designed as a fully integrated demonstration facility for hard rock (lode) gold operations. It comprehensively showcases the complete mineral processing flowsheet, from ore preparation to final bullion production, allowing investors, engineers, and mine owners to evaluate process performance, metallurgical recovery, reagent consumption, and equipment configuration under real operating conditions.
The process begins with crushing, where run-of-mine ore is reduced to a suitable particle size for downstream grinding. The crushing circuit can simulate both open and closed-circuit configurations to reflect practical industrial layouts. Crushed material is then fed into the grinding circuit, where it is milled to achieve the required liberation size for effective gold recovery. Grinding parameters such as pulp density, residence time, and product fineness can be adjusted to study their impact on recovery and energy efficiency.
Following grinding, the slurry enters the gravity concentration stage. This section is designed to recover free and coarse gold particles at an early stage, reducing the load on downstream leaching circuits and improving overall recovery efficiency. The gravity concentrate is directed to an intensive leaching system, where high-grade concentrate undergoes accelerated cyanidation under controlled conditions to maximize gold dissolution in a short period of time. This approach enhances gold recovery from gravity products and improves plant economics.
The gravity tailings proceed to flotation, where sulfide-associated gold is recovered. The flotation circuit includes conditioning, roughing, and cleaning stages to produce a high-grade flotation concentrate. Operating parameters such as reagent dosage, aeration rate, and pulp chemistry can be optimized within the pilot framework to simulate full-scale production conditions.
The flotation concentrate can be treated by cyanidation to extract gold locked within sulfide minerals. This section demonstrates the cyanide leaching of flotation concentrates under controlled agitation and reagent conditions, ensuring effective gold dissolution while monitoring reagent consumption and metallurgical performance.
Prior to the main leaching process, the slurry undergoes pre-leach thickening to adjust pulp density and improve cyanidation efficiency. The thickening stage also enables better control of solution chemistry and solid-liquid separation performance.
The plant is equipped with both CIL (Carbon-in-Leach) and CIP (Carbon-in-Pulp) circuits, providing flexibility for comparative testing and process optimization. Gold dissolved during cyanidation is adsorbed onto activated carbon, allowing evaluation of adsorption kinetics, carbon activity, and circuit configuration. This flexibility enables operators to determine the most suitable carbon-based recovery method for specific ore types.
For operations requiring clarification-based recovery, the pilot plant also incorporates a Merrill–Crowe system. In this circuit, pregnant solution is clarified, de-aerated, and treated with zinc powder to precipitate gold and silver. This allows side-by-side comparison between carbon adsorption and zinc precipitation methods, depending on ore characteristics and solution chemistry.
Loaded carbon from the CIL/CIP circuit is processed in an elution and electrowinning system. Gold is desorbed from activated carbon under controlled temperature and chemical conditions, then recovered from the pregnant electrolyte by electrowinning. The resulting cathode sludge is collected and prepared for smelting.
Tailings from the leaching circuits are processed through a filtration system to demonstrate efficient solid-liquid separation and tailings management. This stage provides insight into moisture content control, environmental compliance, and water recycling efficiency.
Finally, recovered gold-bearing materials from electrowinning or Merrill–Crowe precipitation are smelted to produce doré bullion. The smelting section demonstrates flux addition, furnace operation, and metal separation to yield gold-silver alloy bars suitable for further refining.
With a treatment capacity of 25 metric tons per day (1 ton per hour), this pilot plant serves as a complete small-scale production and testing platform. It is ideal for metallurgical testing, process validation, equipment demonstration, operator training, and investor presentation. Despite its modest throughput, the plant replicates industrial-scale process logic and equipment configuration, ensuring that test results can be reliably scaled up to larger commercial operations.
This pilot gold processing plant provides a full-process, end-to-end demonstration of modern hard rock gold beneficiation technology, integrating gravity recovery, flotation, cyanidation, carbon adsorption, zinc precipitation, filtration, elution, electrowinning, and smelting within one compact and efficient system.
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