Barrick Gold Places Order for Gekko's Inline Leach Reactor
02 September 2009
Toronto-based Barrick Gold has placed an order with Australian supplier Gekko Systems for an automatic inline leach reactor (ILR) for use at the Tulawaka project in Tanzania.
Barrick tested a similar reactor at its Lawlers operation in Western Australia. The unit will treat gravity gold concentrates from a Knelson concentrator.
Earlier this year, Barrick announced it would proceed with construction of Tulawaka, about 100km west of its Bulyanhulu mine. It has resources of 2.3 million tonnes grading 11.1g of gold/ton based on a 1g cut-off grade, or 1.7 million tonnes grading 14.2g of gold-based on a cut-off of 2g. Total cash costs are expected to be $175/oz.
Current processing plant capacity at San Jose is 265,000t/annum. Minera Santa Cruz recently advised the market of its intention to double capacity during 2008. The order for five additional Gekko Systems' ILRs will supplement that expansion.
Gekko Systems' technological and design ingenuity combined with Hochschild's gold and silver mining expertise has produced unprecedented recovery rates from flotation concentrates. The San Jose joint venture set ILR target recovery rates for gold at 96% and target recovery rates for silver at 97%. Gold and silver recovery rates at San Jose are now consistently meeting target expectations. Since opening in 2007, ILR recovery rates for the Selene mine have achieved 98% for both silver and gold.
