Three major gold producers, Lac Minerals, Campbell Red Lake Mines and Dickenson Mines may soon become the first gold miners to take advantage of a revolutionary piece of cost-saving technology developed in Ontario. The technology, using ion exchange columns, which has been used in the uran ium industry for 30 years, can be used to recycle cyanide contained in mill waste streams or in barren pulp in mills where carbon-in-pulp (cip) techniques are used.
This cyanide is currently destroyed by natural degradation or by using chlorine, hydrogen peroxide, ozone or sulphur dioxide before mill effluent is discharged into the environment. By capturing and reusing the cyanide, which costs about $1.80 a kg, companies can potentially reduce cyanide consumption rates by up to 60% resulting in substantial operating cost savings for a mine. Typically, a Canadian gold mill uses one kilogram of cyanide for every tonne of ore treated.
A new company, Cy-Tech Inc., has been incorporated to market the revolutionary cyanide recycling technology which was devel oped by Witteck Development Inc. of Mississauga, Ont. over the past 1 1/2 years at an estimated cost of $500,000 (N.M., Aug 8/85). The company has applied for four patents on the process.
At an inaugural meeting with industry representatives last week in Mississauga, the company demonstrated the technology in a mobile pilot plant housed in a tractor trailer. Some 120 people from government environment departments, the gold mining industry and cyanide supply companies toured the plant.
Cy-Tech research scientist Ian Inch will be taking the fully- equipped trailer, which cost about $150,000 to assemble, up to Lac’s Doyon mine in northwestern Quebec this week for a 3-4 week test run. It will then move on to the Campbell Red Lake and Dickenson mines in Red Lake, Ont. The necessary operating criteria for the design of a full scale plant at these mines will be obtained from the on-site test runs. Short Payback Period
Cy-Tech will then supply a turnkey plant to the mines along with a performance guarantee. Dr Janet L. Laird, senior research scientist for Cy-Tech, told The Northern Miner a typical plant could pay for itself in less than a year.
The resin used in the process is one of the higher cost items. It is commercially available from Dow Chemical, Rhom and Haas or Bayer and its cost will be included with the capital cost of each plant. Cy-Tech has chosen a 16-mesh resin so it can be screened from the barren carbon pulp produced in cip circuits.
Dr. Laird estimates that 60% of all gold mills in the world could benefit financially and environmentally from the technology. The process also removes base metals from mill effluent which is then precipitated as a sludge after the elution process. Worldwide Market
In Australia, where several mining companies are putting a number of large tonnage gold mines into production very quickly, the Cy-Tech process has been licensed and will offer significant cost savings. Since there are no cyanide manufacturers in Australia, costs for the lixiviant are higher than in North America.
Amir Hussain, manager of Cy-Tech, will be giving a paper on the technology at the cim District 4 meeting in Winnipeg, Oct 30.
Cy-Tech is currently financed by a number of private investors (40%) and Witteck Development (60%) but Peggy Witte, president of Cy- Teck and Witteck, says the company could seek public financing in the future.
Be the first to comment on "Cyanide technology could save gold miners thousands"