TMAC Resources recently placed an order with Gekko Systems to design and build two surface modular Python plants followed by a concentrate treatment plant in Hope Bay, Canada. The project, located within the Arctic Circle, will be delivered in two stages over a two-year period with its completion of the 1,000 t/d stage 1 plant estimated by the end of 2016.
Gekko says its “innovative mineral processing solutions played an essential part in securing the TMAC project” as the company required a plant that is “low energy, low height, easy to transport and install; all of which made the Gekko Systems modular plant a perfect fit. Further, the flowsheet design will ensure low operating costs and a strong focus on energy efficiency.”
TMAC Resources is a Canadian-based mineral exploration and development company that pursues responsible and economically sustainable exploration, development and mining of the Hope Bay Greenstone Belt in Nunavut, Canada.
As a result of Gekko’s involvement in this project, 40 new project-related positions will be created in Ballarat to assist Gekko’s team with each phase of this major project. Major components of the plant design are:
- Three-stage crushing circuit and coarse grind to 212 micron using a Vertical Shaft Impactor (VSI) and ball mill
- Continuous gravity gold recovery in Gekko InLine Pressure Jigs
- Rougher and cleaner flotation
- Concentrate regrind with free gold recovery and batch intensive leaching
- Leaching with continuous InLine Leach Reactors
- Leach residue filtering to recover pregnant solution
- Cyanide destruction using the SO2/Air process
- Gold recovery at 300,000 oz/y capacity from solution using AuRIX® resin and Gekko’s G-REX columns.
The modular plant has been designed to initially treat 1,000 t/d of mill feed and reach its maximum capacity of 2,000 t/d in early 2018.The Minister for Industry, Energy and Resources, the Hon. Lily D’Ambrosio, visited Gekko Systems’ Head Office in Ballarat on August 10 to congratulate Gekko on this project. She is shown here with two of Gekko’s directors, both of whom are nominees for this year’s International Mining Technology Hall of Fame inductions – Sandy Gray (concentration) and Elizabeth Lewis-Gray (comminution).