Glencore Technology has recently been awarded the inaugural 2016 METS Ignited Collaboration Award presented at the IMARC Gala Dinner in Melbourne, along with project partner Core Resources. The award recognises the successful installation of the Albion ProcessTM treatment plant for GeoProMining Gold LLC’s GPM Gold Project in Armenia. The project increased gold recovery from 20% to over 90% at the site, ensuring a commercially viable operation and extending the project mine life by 10 years through the use of the Albion ProcessTM.
“Companies mining gold are looking for efficient processes to treat lower grades and more complex refractory ore. The Albion ProcessTM plant turns this challenge into a significant opportunity,” said METS Ignited CEO Ric Gros. “This collaboration project between Core Resources and Glencore Technology demonstrates the value of METS and miners working together to commercialise innovative solutions for industry. The Albion Process could bring about industry-wide benefits. There is potential for a step change in gold processing, including improved environmental outcomes that enhance a mining company’s social licence to operate. The ongoing partnership between Core Resources and Glencore Technology will see further collaboration in the licensing and delivery of the Albion Process.”
Glencore Technology General Manager Mike Hourn said: “This is a huge vote of confidence for the technology. It also recognises the Glencore Technology and Core Resources teams, who have collaborated on this project from initial conception and testwork, to designing, installing and finally commissioning a commercial plant.”
The Albion Process leads the way in refractory ore processing. Tail dam reclamation operations at Las Lagunas also rely on the technology for gold and silver production, as well as several Glencore zinc refineries, which use the process in an integrated zinc leaching/electro-refining flowsheet for increased capacity.
The 2016 inductee to the International Mining Technology Hall of Fame in the Comminution category, Joe Pease, was formerly CEO of Xstrata Technology (now Glencore Technology), when the Albion Process was developed, and it successfully replaced roasting at Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines, and at the Phelps Dodge Morenci chalcopyrite leach. Joe is now a Principal Consultant with Mineralis. Mike Hourn, as stated now General Manager at Glencore Technology, was one of the inventors of the Albion Process and is also the 2017 nominee for the IM Technology Hall of Fame in the Metallurgy category.
The Albion Process was developed over 12 years of research and piloting at Xstrata’s Hydrometallurgical Research Laboratories (previously owned by MIM) at Albion in Brisbane; with co-developer, Highlands Pacific. To market the technology, Xstrata Tecnology and Highlands Pacific formed a partnership with Core Resources, a private resource development and financing company established and run by Jonathan Loraine, who was previously responsible for MIM’s technology business.
The 2015 and 2016 inductees will be celebrated at a special Induction Awards Dinner during SME week, to be held at Denver’s Brown Palace Hotel on February 20 – for more details and to book tickets see www.im-halloffame.com