| Company | Minera Don Nicolas |
| Date | 2024 |
| Commodities | Gold, Silver |
Executive Summary
This technical report section details the recovery methods employed at the Las Calandrias and Martinetas facilities operated by Minera Don Nicolas. The operation utilizes two distinct processing circuits: a Carbon-in-Leach (CIL) plant for higher-grade ore and a Heap Leach plant for lower-grade oxide resources. The CIL plant, located at Las Martinetas, processes approximately 1,000 to 1,200 tpd of gold-silver ore with a design throughput of 56-58 t/h, achieving over 90% gold recovery. The Heap Leach plant, located at Las Calandrias, handles 8,000 to 10,000 tpd of low-grade ore, designed for 1.8 Mt per year with 70% recovery.
The CIL circuit involves crushing, grinding to 75 microns, leaching with cyanide in CIL tanks, carbon elution, electrowinning, and smelting to doré bars. The Heap Leach circuit uses a two-stage crushing plant to reduce ore to 12.7 mm, followed by heap leaching with cyanide solution. Pregnant solution is processed via Carbon in Column (CIC) technology before carbon is sent to the Martinetas plant for elution. Both facilities operate under the International Cyanide Management Code guidelines.
Opportunities for production upgrades include processing low-grade oxide resources with finer crushing and agglomeration, and evaluating flotation circuits for deep sulfide ores to be processed via pressure oxidation or CIL.
Reports
Website: https://cerradogold.com/projects/minera-don-nicolas
Report Date: 2024
Region:
Project Status:
Commodity: Gold, Silver
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