SSR Mining’s Board of Directors has approved construction of a supplemental flotation circuit at its Çöpler gold mine in Turkey at a total cost of $18 million with commissioning expected in Q3 2021. In addition, a seventh lift of the tailings storage facility along with improved settling, resulting from the flotation circuit removes the Mineral Reserve tailings capacity constraint on total tonnes processed. Engineering and permitting is also proceeding on a second smaller tailings facility in anticipation of growth at Çöpler and nearby Ardich project which is a near-surface oxide gold deposit located approximately 6 km to the northeast.
The new flotation plant will be incorporated into the existing sulphide plant to upgrade sulphide sulphur to fully utilise grinding and pressure oxidation (POX) autoclave capacity. The flotation circuit is in detailed design and preliminary construction works are underway pending final permitting which is expected in late 2020.
SSR stated: “A 50 to 150 t/h flotation circuit will increase overall sulphide plant throughput, utilising latent capacity in the sulphide plant, in particular the grinding and POX circuits. Total plant throughput will increase up to a maximum of 400 t/h, depending on ore type and chemistry. Total plant and flotation circuit throughput will modulate to produce a concentrate that will maintain maximum autoclave sulphide sulfur throughput rates.”
The flotation circuit is being installed between grinding and acidulation. A bleed/slip stream from the grinding thickener feed will go to flotation, gold bearing sulphide concentrate will return to the grinding thickener to be combined with POX feed. The carbonate rich flotation tailings go directly to leaching.
The projected benefits of the flotation circuit are:
- A significant increase in overall plant throughput rate (1.9 to 2 Mt/y design up to a max 3 Mt/y)
- Increased tailings settled density provides additional TSF capacity
- Reduced reagent usage (acid and lime)
- Making the sulphide plant less dependent on input ore chemical parameters (less process excursions & reduced mine costs)