As International Mining’s May issue, including a review of gold recovery technologies, nears publication, Gekko Systems today (April 1) released the results of a worldwide operational and design review of all existing centrifugal concentrators. The study compared mineral recoveries obtained in design test work against the actual performance obtained in plant operation. A number of critical parameters were found to have a major influence on the observed discrepancies. These included the usual suspects including differences in yield, feed rate, G force, mineral size and sample selection. However, there was one factor identified which surprised all participants.
It was found that laboratory testwork carried out in the opposite hemisphere to the final plant installation was particularly poor in predicting performance. Professor N. Piqua, who performed the exhaustive statistical analysis stated, “In 58% of these contra-hemispherical cases the prediction was, well, very poor, almost to the point of appearing as statistical aberrations, whereas the remaining 42% of cases were well within the 98% confidence limit. Closer inspection of the data revealed a 100% negative correlation between predictive accuracy, and rotational direction compliance in the data set. In other words, the prediction was accurate for plants in the opposite hemisphere, only if the direction of rotation was reversed.”
A review of all data showed the magnitude of the effect was directly related to the difference in latitude between the test and plant location. Professor Piqua continued, “the observed effect is due to the interaction between the earth’s combined rotation and gravitational local field vector and the local rotational and gravitational field vector exerted by the centrifugal device. This is opposite in the north and south hemispheres and is similar to the Coriolis effect which determines the rotational direction of weather systems and bath water.”
Gekko Systems has now relocated its testing facilities as close as practicable to the equator to neutralise this effect. After close consideration of Kampala in Uganda, Samarinda in Indonesia and Kismaayo in Somalia, the laboratories have been moved to the Maldives in the Indian Ocean and the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean. “We believe these locations will allow us to maximise testwork effectiveness and will be very influential in attracting customers and staff…due to their ideal location near the equator and directly opposite each other on the globe …, of course.”
Also, Gekko Systems has launched its new TAS technology, developed as an offshoot of the centrifugal concentrator survey results, to produce and use the extremely rare crystalline carbon compound, mithium. This naturally occurring compound is an ultra high molecular mass (UHMM) carbon network with structure and properties combining those of diamond, graphite and bucky balls.
Mithium was first identified in extremely low concentrations as a thin passivating layer on PGM sulphides recovered from only the deepest mines in South Africa. These layers prevented economic recovery.
Using extremely high G forces in Gekko Systems’ new GenerationY InLine Spinner (model ISP3000Y) in the complete absence of the Coriolis field, the mithium film can be sheared away from the PGM surface allowing recovery of the contained PGMs and isolation of the mithium.
During testwork the largest ever quantity of pure mithium, 42 mg, was produced allowing further study of its catalytic properties. Pure mithium has now been confirmed to control the structure and growth of organic carbon polymers including amino acids and proteins. The complex surface contours of the mithium sheets can be used to hold organic atoms in specific arrangements allowing them to bond to each other in that specific arrangement; the new molecule is then released allowing the active reaction sites to be reused and the process continues as long as raw material is supplied. Researchers are learning how to use mithium’s electrical properties to manipulate the shape of the crystal sheet to program the article produced.
In an impressive display of its catalytic properties 10mg of mithium was added to a petri dish. After 15 minutes this had been transformed into a three-course meal of mock turtle soup, roast beef with potatoes and strawberries and cream. All the mithium was subsequently recovered. Research is continuing to update the menu to beyond the Victorian era.
In a parallel stream of research, the application of massive electrical currents during the initial stages of polymerisation is being investigated. However, access to this laboratory was temporarily suspended after the lead scientist, Professor Steven McKing, had a nervous breakdown and was isolated in the medical wing muttering over and over again “it creeps, and leaps, and glides and slides.”
Gekko Systems is seeking new applications for mithium and expressions of interest in the TAS process (Terenic and Autocatalytic Simulation). Interested parties should contact their psychiatrist and note the date this report was released.