SITE-BUILT RECOVERY PLANTS
Since 1972, KCA has provided lab testing, engineering and/or field services for over 1,000 different gold recovery projects. KCA's plants have earned an outstanding reputation for quality, simplicity, ease of start up and fail-safe operation. KCA can provide a complete turnkey project to process your ore in the most cost effective manner. KCA can handle your project from laboratory testing through gold production. KCA works throughout the world from our offices in Nevada, Mexico, and Australia.
KCA has provided on-site plants on a turn-key basis (design, engineering, startup) for operations such as La India, Mexico (17,250 tons per day) and San Martin, Honduras (20,000 tonnes per day).
KCA also provides design engineering, and construction/startup supervision for plants and complete mine/process installations. Examples are the 1500 tonne/day CIP (agitated leach) gold plant at Puquio Norte, Bolivia and the 20,000 tonne/day heap leach plant at Tarkwa, Ghana.
A list of projects for which KCA has fabricated on-site recovery plants is presented below.
Major on-site EPCM projects can found on our home page under Major Projects.
Precious Metal Plants
Mascota
The above photo shows the CIC and stripping plant for the Mascota project as fabricated by KCA.
Bolkardag
The above photo shows the Merrill-Crowe plant, Mercury Retort, and Smelting Furnace for the Bolkardag project as fabricated by KCA.
A more complete description of the project as well as the full extent of KCA's involvement may be found here.
Hog Ranch
Hog Ranch Heap
KCA performed the project engineering and construction management for this 4000 ton per day open pit heap leach gold operation. KCA had turnkey responsibility for offices, power and utilities, and infrastructure as well as processing. The project was brought into production after only 16 weeks of construction, ahead of schedule and under budget at a capital cost of US $7.7 million. The project was sold, after 18 months of successful operation, for a value exceeding 10 times the original investment.
As part of the initial capital installations, Hog Ranch installed 1,000,000 sq ft (90,000 sq m) of PVC leach pad, sufficient for the first year of operation.
KCA supplied this agglomerating drum and conveyor transport/stacking system for the Hog Ranch project. The ore was crushed to 3 inches (75 mm). This is a relatively coarse size that would not normally require agglomeration, but the ore contained up to 40% fine clay which made the heaps impermeable without agglomeration.
Itos
Itos is a US $ 17 million, 600 tonne/day agitated leach plant which recovers precious metals and base metals from previously processed flotation tailings using a complex acid leach process.
Ity
The plant at Ity, Ivory Coast, is typical of KCA's smaller modular plants. This photo shows the carbon column adsorption/desorption circuit. In these smaller plants, gold is adsorbed then desorbed from the carbon in the same columns using an alcohol strip. Carbon is replaced once per year.
The desorption circuit of the Ity plant consists of a tank, a heater and solution recirculation system, an electrolytic cell (located in the container) and a smelting furnace to produce dore bars on site (not shown). The above two photos were taken at the KCA Reno fabrication yard. Modular plants are fully wet-tested in Reno before being shipped to site. Total setup time at remote sites is usually less than six weeks.
The recovery plant can be seen in the center of this view on site at the Ity project in the Ivory Coast. KCA can provide complete design, construction management, and startup services for mineral processing operations.
Potosi
The COMCO SILVER operation at Potosi, Bolivia, is a 1000-TPD dry grind/heap leach project treating an oxidized silver ore. This heap leach project is unique in that the ore is fine crushed to 8 mesh and then reduced in size by dry grinding to 20 mesh prior to agglomeration for heap leaching. Crushing is done in a three-stage system with a jaw crusher, cone crushers, and a Barmac impactor in closed circuit with an 8 mesh screen. Ore is then screened at 20 mesh, and oversize is dry-ground in a ballmill. The combined product is then agglomerated with cement and conveyor-stacked on a heap leach. KCA provided the original design and construction supervision, and the engineering supervision for subsequent expansion from 500 to 1000 TPD.
Puquio Norte
KCA conducted laboratory testing and a complete feasibility study, including mining, for the installation of a 1000 tonne per day heap leach for this project in 1992 and 1993. Expanded reserves changed the scope of the project from heap leaching to milling. KCA then produced a bankable feasibility study, including mining, for the installation of a 1500 tonne per day CIL mill at Puquio Norte.
Following completion of the study, KCA provided much of the conceptual plant design and equipment sizing, and assisted Comsur in equipment selection, installation and startup. KCA provided part of the plant on a turnkey basis.
The photo shows the carbon stripping and regeneration module built for Puquio Norte by KCA. The plant was built in Reno, then dismantled and reassembled in Bolivia.
San Martin
The San Martin, Honduras, project of Glamis Gold Ltd. is a 15,000 tonne/day heap leach which started production in early 2001. Head grade is 0.9 grams/tonne and recovery is 73%.
KCA provided the recovery plant on a complete turnkey guaranteed basis.
KCA fabricated technical components in Reno, and subcontracted in Honduras for tanks and structures.
Some photos are shown below.
The San Martin plant contains two trains with five carbon columns each. Total combined flow is 900 cu m/hr of solution (4000 gpm). The parallel trains allow for variation in flow between the dry season and the rainy season.
Equipment provided by KCA includes a carbon stripping and regeneration plant, and a complete gold room. KCA also provided a separate water treatment plant. KCA's turnkey contract was about $2 million of the total $27 million project capital cost.
The ore is soft and requires agglomeration, but clay content is low so cement consumption is only 2.5 kg/tonne. Rainfall on site is about one meter per year.
Tambor
The 200 tonne per day partially assembled flotation process plant for the Tambor Project in KCA’s Reno yard. The float cells and rear deck are mounted on standard shipping skids, and the rest is easily reassembled.