The Alumbrera gravity gold room is located within the confines of the Alumbrera Copper Concentrator situated in Argentina, South America.
The gravity gold room circuit involves screening, shaking tables, acid digestion and smelting to upgrade concentrate produced by the Knelson Concentrator circuits. The circuit includes eight 48-inch and four 30-inch Knelson Concentrators.
Ausenco’s scope included development and supervision of a pilot scale test program for determination of probable gold upgrade and clean-up techniques; flowsheet and process development; preliminary engineering design, including general arrangements, P&ID’s and equipment selection; commissioning assistance and operator training.
Achievements
- Largest Knelson Concentrator upgrade facility in the world at the time of construction
- Full scale plant grades and recoveries successfully extrapolated from testwork program grades and recoveries
- In-built flowsheet flexibility has been provided for ease of optimisation of full-scale operation
- Introduction of Australian designed and built equipment into the South American gold industry