The SART plant is now running at full capacity just a month after initial start-up, with no satefy incidencts, said BQE Water.
Located in the Eastern coastal province of Shandon, the plant can is expected to recover approximately 600 t/yr cyanide, 500 t/yr of copper and 350 t/yr of zinc.
The SART process breaks the base metal bond from the WAD complex and precipitates the metal as a commercial grade concentrate
The recovered cyanide will be re-used within the metallurgical process and the copper and zinc will be sold to generate incremental revenues, noted said BQE, adding that this is the first SART plant in the world to recover copper and zinc as separate products.
The company added that a successful start-up was achieved despite conditions that deviated significantly from design parameters. Copper and zinc concentrations in the plant feed exceeded design values by 600% and 200% respectively due to the historic build-up of cyanide soluble metals in the metallurgical process that impacted efficient gold extraction and triggered the need for SART.
"The Zhaojin SART plant is operating as intended even with the greater than anticipated base metal concentrations in the feed. Our ability to resolve operating issues for gold metallurgical facilities is not going unnoticed by other gold producers in the country," stated Songlin Ye, Vice president for Asia at BQE Water.
David Kratochvil, President & CEO of BQE Water, added, "Safe and fast ramp-up to full production is essential to all projects. The Zhaojin plant demonstrates our proficiency to deliver this service for SART which requires uniquely advanced safety systems and operator training to mitigate cyanide and sulphide toxicity risks."
