Factors inuencing the rate of gold cyanide leaching and adsorption on

activated carbon, and their impact on the design of CIL and CIP circuits
C.A. Fleming

, A. Mezei, E. Bourricaudy, M. Canizares, M. Ashbury

SGS Minerals, 185 Concession Street, Lakeeld, ON, Canada K0L 2H0
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Available online 13 April 2011
Keywords:
Gold ores
Cyanide
Activated carbon
Process optimization
Leaching
a b s t r a c t
The carbon in pulp (CIP) and carbon in leach (CIL) processes became rmly established in the gold mining
industry in the 1980s, initially in South Africa and Australia, from where they spread rapidly to all the
gold producing regions of the world. The percentage of annual global gold production by activated car-
bon-based processes grew from zero in the 1970s to almost 70% by the turn of the century, which rep-
resented a phenomenal rate of acceptance of a new technology by a traditionally conservative
industry. The main reason for this rapid acceptance of the new technology was the fact that the rst
few large industrial plants in South Africa convincingly demonstrated better gold recoveries than the tra-
ditional ltration/Merrill Crowe process, with lower capital and operating costs. And as the plants devel-
oped an operating track record over their rst few years of life, they proved to be remarkably robust
mechanically, and highly tolerant of plant upsets, changes in feed composition and solution phase con-
taminants that had caused great problems in Merrill Crowe plants.
These stellar attributes of the carbon-based gold plants have led to complacency and laziness in the
industry, both at the new plant design stage, and with on-going optimization of existing plants. In many
cases, basic rules of thumb that were developed as design criteria for the early CIP plants are still used
today, with no appreciation of the factors that may cause one plant to perform quite differently from
another. There seems to be little incentive to improve performance when it is well known that most
CIP and CIL plants operate quite well with minimal optimization and, in many cases, minimal under-
standing of the factors that inuence performance. Consequently, almost all CIP and CIL plants are over-
designed at the construction stage and are then operated sub-optimally. This can lead to higher gold
losses and/or higher capital and operating costs than necessary.
This paper examines the factors that inuence CIP and CIL plant design and performance, and demon-
strates a very simple methodology that can be used to arrive at something close to an optimum plant
design. It can also be used as an on-going tool by plant metallurgists to transform a fairly well run plant
into an exceptionally well run plant.
2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
The rate of adsorption of gold cyanide onto activated carbon is
very slow by normal industrial standards, and it can take weeks or
even months to attain true equilibrium loading. Because of this, all
CIP and CIL plants are operated under conditions in which the
amount of gold loaded on the carbon in each stage is always far
from equilibrium loading. Thus, the gold extraction efciency in
CIP and CIL plants is always based on the kinetics of adsorption
and is not limited by equilibrium constraints. Improving the kinet-
ics of adsorption means more gold will load on the carbon in a gi-
ven time period, and this in turn translates to lower capital and
operating costs, either by virtue of a decrease in the size or number
of adsorption stages, or by an increase in the loading of gold on the
carbon and a consequent decrease in the amount of carbon trans-
ferred to elution and regeneration.
With CIP and CIL plants operating far from equilibrium, there is
always plenty of capacity on the carbon to absorb sudden changes
in the amount of gold that has to be extracted, with no signicant
change in overall extraction efciency. This can occur (and often
does) either as a result of surges in the owrate of feed pulp, or ra-
pid changes in the concentration of gold in solution. The CIP and
CIL processes have proven to be both metallurgically and mechan-
ically robust, and high gold recoveries are generally achieved with
minimal plant downtime.
Consequently, little attention is paid to circuit optimization at
the feasibility and plant design stages, and many plants are de-
signed with the bare minimum of test work, by following a few
0892-6875/$ - see front matter 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.mineng.2011.03.021

Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 705 652 2000/2025; fax: +1 705 652 2125.
E-mail address: chris.eming@sgs.com (C.A. Fleming).
Minerals Engineering 24 (2011) 484494
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rules of thumb that were established in early plant designs. For
example, although there is absolutely no theoretical basis for doing
it this way, many CIP plants are still designed today with a pulp
residence time of one hour per stage, and a carbon concentration
of 25 g/L in the pulp, simply because that was what worked well
in the rst generation CIP plants built in South Africa and Australia
in the 1980s. In fact, as mathematical modeling and plant experi-
ence has shown, it is the total amount of carbon in a stage that
determines gold extraction efciency, not its concentration. This
has been demonstrated by the recently introduced Kemix
Pumpcell design of CIP contactors (Buson et al., 1999). The unique
Pumpcell pulp screening mechanisms can operate at much higher
carbon concentrations (up to 100 g/L), which has allowed the size
of the Pumpcell CIP adsorption tanks to be reduced by a factor of at
least three and pulp residence times reduced to 1520 min/stage,
compared to conventional CIP tanks, which have a residence time
of 1 h/stage for the same pulp throughput rate.
Another rule of thumb that plant operators live by is to aim
for an up-grading ratio (gold on loaded carbon/gold leached) of
about 1000, although very much higher ratios can be achieved in
practice because of the enormous capacity of activated carbon for
gold cyanide. Increasing this ratio lowers the advance rate of car-
bon to elution and regeneration, which in turn lowers both capital
and operating costs in these cost-intensive unit operations. But
increasing the loading on the carbon slows the rate of gold adsorp-
tion, which will result in increased soluble gold losses to the tail-
ings unless other remedial steps are taken, such as increasing the
amount of carbon in each stage or increasing the number of stages.
The impact of slurry rheology on mass transfer is also generally
overlooked in designing CIP and CIL plants, and the common oper-
ating philosophy is to thicken the leach feed after milling to the
maximum practical density that can be achieved in a thickener
underow. This is done in the belief that maximizing pulp densi-
ties will maximize ore throughput, thereby minimizing the size
of the leach and adsorption plants and generating the lowest cap-
ital cost. But the kinetic gains that can be made by operating both
the leach and adsorption sections at lower solids densities with
more uid slurries will shorten the residence time required for
the leach and adsorption sections, and this will often outweigh
the losses suffered from increased volumetric ows, resulting in
smaller tank sizes and improved operating performance.
It should be apparent from these comments that optimizing CIP
or CIL plant design with optimized operating parameters can have
a signicant impact on both capital and operating costs. But it
would be a complex and very expensive process to examine all
the alternatives in pilot plants, and hence the use of historic rules
of thumb plus a dash of conservatism has evolved as the prevail-
ing design philosophy in many cases. A better alternative is to use
models that adequately describe the rate of leaching of gold from a
particular feed and the rate at which that gold loads onto activated
carbon, and to derive optimum design criteria via an iterative pro-
cess in which the impact of varying the plant design on metallur-
gical performance is examined. The SGS approach to designing
CIP and CIL circuits is presented below, with specic examples
from projects that have been carried out in recent years.
2. Theoretical background
2.1. The inuence of pulp rheology
The rheology of a pulp inuences its uidity and ow behavior,
which in turn has a direct bearing on the efciency of all energy
and mass transfer-based unit operations in mineral processing
plants, such as grinding, mixing, pumping, screening and physical
separation of liquids from solids (settling, thickening, screening
and cycloning) (Beazley and Kyle, 1989; Menne, 1991; Healy
et al., 1994; Mezei et al., 1999). In addition, pulp rheology in gold
metallurgical operations is a key factor inuencing mass transfer
kinetics both in leaching and adsorption of gold onto activated car-
bon (Menne, 1991).
Unlike water, which displays linear Newtonian behavior (Fig. 1),
process slurries do not exhibit a constant viscosity. A common
characteristic of the majority of gold pulps is that they display a
Bingham plastic rheological behavior characterized by yield stress.
This is also illustrated in Fig. 1. A Bingham Plastic uid behaves as a
solid under static conditions, and a minimum amount of force
must be applied to make it ow. That force is called the yield stress
and it is created by the shearing effect that is present in practically
all the unit operations listed above. The Bingham yield stress is
quite specic for a given pulp, but varies with parameters such
as pulp density, particle size distribution and temperature. The va-
lue of the yield stress can be determined using a technique known
as concentric cylinder rotational viscometry (CCRV) in conjunc-
tion with rheological modeling. This topic has been treated in de-
tail in previous papers (Mezei et al., 1999, 2002; Mezei, 2003).
A very useful feature of rheological studies is the fact that the
data produced with a single representative sample of slurry can
be used to generate design criteria for several unit operations
involving the underlying process stream. This is done by plotting
the yield stress as a function of the solids density of the slurry,
as illustrated in Fig. 2, and dening an entity known as the Critical
Solids Density (CSD) from the shape of the curve. By denition, the
CSD brackets a small solids density range in which there is a sharp
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
Shear rate, , s
-1
S
h
e
a
r

s
t
r
e
s
s
,

,

P
a

Bingham Plastic
Newtonian
Yield Stress (
y
) =
resistance to flow
Fig. 1. Bingham plastic vs. Newtonian ow behavior.
0
25
50
75
100
125
150
175
200
225
250
42 44 46 48 50 52 54 56 58 60 62
Solids density, %wt.
Y
i
e
l
d

S
t
r
e
s
s
,

P
a
Grind discharge
CIP
Leach - feed and discharge
Thickener
discharge - CSD
Fig. 2. CIP gold plant key unit operation owability domains.
C.A. Fleming et al. / Minerals Engineering 24 (2011) 484494 485
increase of the yield stress for a small incremental increase of the
solids density.
The CSD can be used to predict the underowsolids density that
will be achievable in a commercial thickener at compression, and it
also indicates the maximum solids density for pumping the slurry,
given reasonable friction pressure loss.
There are negative consequences of operating outside the CSD
range, both on the low and the high pulp density side. Operating
at low pulp densities reduces plant throughput for a given required
residence time and can result in sanding out of carbon particles
and coarse sands at the bottom of tanks. Operating at high pulp
densities may causes a rapid decrease in the owability of the pulp,
which will reduce throughput in certain critical unit operations
and retard the kinetics of gold leaching and adsorption. The effects
of pulp rheology and owability on the rates of gold leaching and
carbon adsorption are well known (Beazley and Kyle, 1989; Mezei
et al., 2002). Mennes published laboratory testwork and corre-
sponding plant operating data (Beazley and Kyle, 1989) are partic-
ularly relevant as they clearly illustrate the inuence of yield stress
on gold cyanide adsorption kinetics. According to that study, the
recommended yield stress domain for favorable carbon adsorption
kinetics is anything below 10 Pa (Menne, 1991).
Despite those ndings, data generated in the SGS Lakeeld lab-
oratory over the past ten years has shown that many CIP and CIL
plant operators choose to run their plants at pulp densities above
the CSD, where the yield stress is usually well in excess of 20 Pa
in case of ores displaying good owability, and as high as 60 Pa
in the case of more difcult ores.
As depicted in Fig. 2, the common practice in gold plants is to
mill the ore at as high a solids density as possible, to maximize
the efciency of grinding. The mill discharge is then diluted in the
downstream classication section (screens and cyclones), so
the mill product is generally pumped to a thickener to re-densify
the slurry before pumping to the leach and gold adsorption plants.
The thickener produces an underowat a solids density close to the
CSD, and excess water is recycled back to the mill from the thick-
ener overow. The pulp then generally remains at the thickener
underow pulp density, or close to it, as it is ows through the
leaching and carbon adsorption plants. Therefore, the solids density
in the two sections of the plant where mass transfer rates are crit-
ical (leaching and adsorption) is generally set by the performance of
equipment (such as the thickener or other physical barriers such as
the inter-stage screens) that has no bearing on reaction kinetics,
and the impact of solids density on the gold cyanide leaching and
adsorption rates is ignored.
The reason plant operators constantly strive to maximize solids
density in all parts of their plant is the belief that by so doing they
are either maximizing ore throughput or minimizing the size of the
plant. But this rather facile approach can lead to a sub-optimal
plant design, since the gains that might be realized by lowering
the pulp density, improving mass transfer kinetics and shortening
the optimum pulp residence time will, in many cases, exceed those
realizable by maximizing solids density. In the example in Fig. 2,
the leach and CIP plants would probably be fed at a solids density
of 5658%, which is clearly achievable in the thickener, whereas
the optimum solids density for efcient mass transfer in the leach-
ing and adsorption sections is probably around 45%, where the
yield stress value is <10 Pa.
There are risks associated with lowering the pulp density too
much as mentioned above, the main one being the tendency of car-
bon particles and coarse particles of ore to sand-out at the bot-
tom of the leach and adsorption tanks. This lowers gold
extraction efciency in the plant, and can result in signicant
downtime to remedy the problem. The wet density of most types
of activated carbon is around 1.4 g/mL so carbon particles will tend
to settle in the quiescent zones of pulps that have a density of less
than 1.4 g/mL, and oat on pulps that have a density great than
1.4 g/mL. Using the natural density of a pulp to suspend or levitate
the carbon particles saves energy, and therefore the minimum en-
ergy input from the mixers is realized at pulp densities close to
1.4 g/mL, and this is another useful rule of thumb in arriving at
an optimum pulp density for a CIP or CIL plant.
2.2. Kinetic modeling of leaching and carbon adsorption
Modeling of the adsorption of gold cyanide onto activated car-
bon is important for the optimal design of commercial CIP and
CIL plants. Several approaches have been proposed over the years,
notably fromthe mid-eighties to the late nineties by several groups
in South Africa (Fleming et al., 1980; Peel and Benedek, 1981; Nicol
et al., 1984a,b; Van Deventer, 1984; Williams and Glasser, 1985;
Woollacott et al., 1990a,b; Stange et al., 1990; LeRoux et al.,
1991; Stange, 1999). This paper focuses on the early semi-empiri-
cal NicolFleming models (Fleming et al., 1980; Nicol et al.,
1984a,b), which gained fairly widespread acceptance in the indus-
try due to (i) their underlying simplicity, (ii) their relatively easy
verication through laboratory metallurgical testwork and (iii)
the proven consistency between their predicted performance and
full scale plant operating data.
For simplicity, the NicolFleming model assumes that the rate
of adsorption of gold cyanide from the bulk liquid phase, across
the quiescent liquid lm at the boundary between the carbon
and solution phases, and into the pores of the carbon particles
can be described by a single pseudo mass transfer coefcient. Lab-
oratory test work has shown that the rate of loading is initially rst
order with respect to the concentration of gold in solution, and is
controlled by lm diffusion in the liquid phase. This condition is
valid in the early stages of the adsorption process, which typically
persist for at least the rst 12 h that the carbon spends in any
adsorption stage. If the carbon spends much longer in each stage
and the gold loading increases towards its equilibrium value, the
rate of loading slows as diffusion of gold cyanide within the pores
of the carbon becomes rate limiting. But it is the carbon that has
only been in the adsorption stage for 12 h or less that is doing most
of the work of extracting gold, which is why the models simpli-
cation is justied.
The model also assumes that an equilibrium relationship exists
between gold in solution and gold on the carbon at the solution-
carbon boundary, and that the equilibrium can be described by
the simple linear equation; [Au
C
]
i
= K[Au
S
]
i
. This assumption is also
valid for the early stages of the loading process, particularly when
the concentrations of gold in solution are low. In practice, CIP
plants are operated under conditions in which the concentration
of gold in solution is very low in most stages (1 mg/L) and the
loading of gold on the carbon in each stage is signicantly lower
than the equilibrium loading for that stage, which is why the pre-
dictive ability of the model is reasonably good.
Finally the model assumes that each of the adsorption stages is
a perfectly mixed reactor providing constant residence times for
the two counter-current streams (pulp and carbon), and that the
ows of pulp and carbon are continuous and constant. This is gen-
erally true of the pulp phase, but not the carbon phase, which is
normally transferred periodically in batch or semi batch fashion.
Continuous ow of both phases creates a steady state condition
in which the concentrations of gold in solution and on the carbon
in each stage are constant.
The equation that was developed by Nicol and co-workers
(1984a,b) to describe the rate of loading of gold cyanide onto car-
bon when the concentration of gold in solution is constant (as
would be the case in each stage of a CIP plant) is shown below
(Eq. (1)), as is the equation to describe the rate of gold loading onto
486 C.A. Fleming et al. / Minerals Engineering 24 (2011) 484494
carbon in a batch reactor, where the concentrations of gold in solu-
tion and on the carbon are constantly changing (Eq. (2)).
d[Au[
C
=dt = k(K[Au[
S
[Au[
C
) (1)
ln
[Au[
S;0
B
[Au[
S
B

= k
KM
C
M
S
1

t (2)
where
B =
M
S
[Au[
S;0
M
C
[Au[
C;0
KM
C
M
S
[Au]
S
is the concentration of gold in solution at time t,
[Au]
C
is the concentration of gold on the carbon at time t,
[Au]
S,0
is the concentration of gold in solution at t = 0,
[Au]
C,0
is the concentration of gold in the activated carbon at
t = 0,
k is the kinetic constant,
K is the equilibrium constant,
M
C
is the mass of carbon and
M
S
is the mass of solution.
For CIP modeling in the laboratory, the ore that is under inves-
tigation is rst leached to completion, and the leached pulp is then
treated in a batch reactor with activated carbon to extract the gold
cyanide. The rate of extraction is determined by taking samples at
timed intervals and analyzing them for gold. As shown in the ori-
ginal FlemingNicol papers (Fleming et al., 1980; Nicol et al.,
1984a,b), values for k and K in Eq. (2) are determined by the use
of best t parameters derived from a non-linear, least squares t
of the batch rate data to Eq. (2).
The values of k and K that have been generated from the batch
test are then tted to Eq. (1) to determine the rate of gold loading
onto carbon in any stage of a CIP plant. Combining this rate equa-
tion with a gold mass balance equation for each stage yields an
overall model for a multi-stage CIP circuit of X stages in which pulp
enters the rst stage with a gold concentration of [Au]
S,0
and eluted
carbon enters the last stage with a gold concentration of [Au[
X
C
. An
iterative procedure is used to determine concentrations of gold in
solution and on the carbon in each of the X stages in the circuit, as a
function of the ow ratios of pulp and carbon, the carbon concen-
tration in each stage, and the number of stages, X (Nicol et al.,
1984a,b).
Carbon in leach (CIL) is slightly more difcult to simulate and
model, since gold is leaching from the ore into solution at the same
time as it is adsorbing onto the carbon, and the concentration of
gold in solution in each stage (which is still assumed to be at a con-
stant steady state) is a function of the relative rates of leaching and
adsorption. The expression that has been derived to describe the
rate of gold leaching is shown in Eq. (3), and integration of this
equation with the rate equation for gold loading on carbon (Eq.
(1)) allows the gold concentration in solution in each stage to be
calculated.

d[Au[
st
dt
= k
s
([Au[
s;t
[Au[
s;e
) (3)
The semi-empirical NicolFleming models (Fleming et al., 1980;
Nicol et al., 1984a,b) were a compromise between academic per-
fection and pragmatic simplicity, and 25 years of experience has
shown them to be adequate for the task for which they were devel-
oped. This is a result both of the validity of the many assumptions
that were made under most CIP/CIL operating conditions, as well as
the inherent robustness of the CIP and CIL processes. The end re-
sult is a well-proven, data modeling tool-set that allows for:
v fairly accurate predictions of steady state as well as transient
carbon adsorption behavior from simple and inexpensive labo-
ratory batch tests,
v economic sensitivity analyses of the effect on plant perfor-
mance of changes in parameters such as the number of stages,
the carbon concentration in each stage, the relative owrates
of pulp and carbon,
v an evaluation of CIP versus CIL,
v an assessment of the consequences of plant upset conditions
such as poor elution/regeneration, carbon poisoning, carbon
loss through breakage or screen rupturing, etc.
All of the models (Fleming et al., 1980; Peel and Benedek, 1981;
Nicol et al., 1984a,b; Van Deventer, 1984; Williams and Glasser,
1985; Woollacott et al., 1990a,b; Stange et al., 1990; LeRoux
et al., 1991; Stange, 1999) recognize the fact that the loading of
gold on carbon in all of the stages of CIP and CIL plants is far from
the equilibrium or maximum loading that could be achieved if the
carbon particles remained in the stage for an innitely long time.
Consequently, the performance of these plants is driven primarily
by mass transfer kinetics and is not limited by equilibrium loading
constraints. Moreover, for much of the time that the carbon spends
in a stage, the rate limiting step is mass transfer in the solution or
pulp phase.
The most important factors inuencing pulp-phase mass trans-
fer (lm diffusion) kinetics are mixing efciency and pulp rheol-
ogy. These two parameters are in turn a function of several other
physical characteristics of the system, such as the type of mixer
and the energy input into the mixer, the dimensions of the adsorp-
tion tank, the carbon particle size distribution, the pulp density of
the slurry, the presence or absence of ore slimes or precipitates in
the slurry and the temperature. The rheological properties of a
pulp can be measured accurately in very small scale tests as dis-
cussed above, and scale up perfectly, but mixing efciency is far
more difcult to quantify and scale up. Consequently, it is the
greatest source of uncertainty and error when using models to pre-
dict behavior in full scale plants. . .far greater in fact than the errors
that might arise from assumptions, simplications and limitations
in the model itself.
2.3. Overall approach
The approach that has evolved over the years at SGS Minerals to
recognize and quantify the impact of these diverse factors on the
performance of gold plants, and optimize CIP or CIL plant design,
is to conduct inexpensive bench scale metallurgical tests to exam-
ine the rheological properties of a leach pulp early in the life of a
project. This information is used to select the optimum solids den-
sity of the slurry feeding the gold plant, and the rates of gold leach-
ing and carbon adsorption are then determined at the selected pulp
density. The process involves the following steps, preferably car-
ried out in the sequence shown:
v Conduct bottle roll leach tests to determine the effect of grind
size and solution chemistry on the recovery of gold. This matrix
of tests can be conducted on one or more samples/composites,
depending on the expected variability of the deposit.
v Conduct solid/liquid separation testing (settling, thickening)
and rheology testing on one or more samples of pulp that have
been leached under the optimum conditions identied in the
leach test work. Optimize the grind size and the solids density
from the perspectives of both gold recovery and the rheological
properties of the slurry.
v Generate a yield stress curve(s) as shown in Fig. 2, and from the
shape of the curve(s) as well as the optimum (projected) thick-
ener underow densities, establish the Critical Solids Density
C.A. Fleming et al. / Minerals Engineering 24 (2011) 484494 487
for the particular sample. Then select three pulp densities from
the Yield Stress curve, one at the CSD, one at the CSD 5% and
one at the CSD 10% (57%, 52% and 47% in the example in
Fig. 2). The spread can be narrower or wider depending on the
curvature of the yield stress/pulp density correlation.
v Conduct bench scale testing to determine the rate of gold leach-
ing (under the previously established optimum conditions) and
the rate of gold cyanide adsorption onto activated carbon at the
three selected pulp densities. Fit the kinetic data to the rate
expressions shown in Eqs. (2) and (3).
v Follow the iterative procedure described by Nicol and co-work-
ers (1984a,b) and apply the batch kinetic data to predict the
concentration proles of gold in solution, in the ore and on
the carbon in each stage of a multi-stage CIP or CIL plant.
The kinetic tests are conducted in simple, small scale, labora-
tory batch tests, with representative samples of ore or concentrate
in contact with commercial activated carbon. These normally in-
volve a traditional bottle roll experiment, and leach rates are
determined by taking timed samples of slurry from the bottle
and analyzing the solution phase for gold. Once leaching is com-
plete (typically 2448 h), the rate of adsorption of the leached
gold onto carbon is determined by adding carbon to the leached
slurry, and taking more timed samples of slurry over a further
4872 h period. Gold on the carbon (at each time interval) is gen-
erally calculated from the change in gold concentration in the
solution phase.
The leaching and carbon adsorption kinetic data are tted to
Eqs. (2) and (3), which have been shown in many projects to de-
scribe gold leaching and adsorption rates well. These equations
are then used in CIP and CIL models to predict proles of gold
in solution, on the carbon and in the leach residue across a series
of leaching and adsorption tanks in which carbon is advanced
countercurrent to the ow of slurry. The CIP and CIL models allow
a number of operating parameters to be varied systematically,
while predicting the gold extraction performance of the CIP or
CIL plant as a function of the stepwise change that has been made.
This allows the optimum design criteria for the plant to be
established.
The greatest uncertainty in predicting the performance of a full
scale CIP or CIL plant from results that are generated in small scale
batch tests (typically 110 L of pulp), is the impact of scale up on
mixing efciency and hence the rate of gold cyanide adsorption
on carbon. In our experience, mass transfer rates in small scale bot-
tle roll tests are similar to what is achievable in a full scale plant,
but can be up to two times slower. Mass transfer in a small stirred
tank on the other hand can be at least two times faster than full
scale tanks. Experience both with the design of small scale tests
and with the operating performance of full scale CIP and CIL plants
is needed to make reasonable prediction of the appropriate scale
up factor.
The following operating parameters are typically varied
(although some can be xed, if the optimization is based on a ret-
rot to an existing plant, for example):
v The percentage gold leaching that occurs prior to the rst car-
bon adsorption tank (100% assumed for CIP designs).
v The number of carbon adsorption tanks.
v The amount of carbon in the adsorption tanks.
v The rate of advancement of carbon through the CIP or CIL plant
(which gives the target gold loading on the carbon going to
elution).
v The target gold concentration in the solution exiting the last
carbon adsorption tank.
v The amount of gold remaining on the eluted carbon that is recy-
cled to the last adsorption tank.
And the following parameters are typically xed, usually based
on information received from the client, or on supplemental test
work.
v Ore throughput to the plant.
v Pulp density of the slurry feeding the plant.
v Gold in the feed and leach residue.
The model is based on a multi-stage, counter-current congura-
tion; it is built using one or more leaching stages before the rst
carbon adsorption stage, and it can have from 4 to 10 adsorption
stages. It can simulate both CIP and CIL circuits. The CIP model is
based on the assumption that the leaching is complete before the
rst adsorption stage, whereas the CIL model is based on the
assumption that leaching continues in all stages.
Once established, the model can be used in trade off studies to
establish the likely metallurgical and economic impact of varying
parameters such as the number of adsorption stages, the amount
of gold leached before the rst carbon adsorption stage (CIL vs.
CIP), the concentration of carbon in each stage and the rate of
advancing carbon through the circuit, leading to an optimum plant
design. Any uncertainty in the adsorption kinetics scale up factor,
on going from small scale batch tests to full scale CIP or CIL tanks,
becomes irrelevant in these trade off studies, because the scale up
factor will generally be the same for the different scenarios.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. A study of the effects of rheology and mixing efciency
A CIP study was recently conducted on a composite sample of
gold ore that had been collected from the mill discharge of a major
Canadian gold mining operation. Gold is currently being recovered
at this site in a CCD/Merrill Crowe process, because the ore histor-
ically contained high silver values. But the future mill feed will be
lower in silver, and the mine management is contemplating a ow-
sheet change to CIP to lower operating costs and improve metallur-
gical efciency.
A large batch of the ore was leached under the conditions pre-
vailing in the plant, and the leached pulp was then ltered and
washed to produce leach liquor and washed solids. The washed
solids were dried, weighed and recombined with leach liquor in
appropriate ratios to produce pulps containing exactly 40%, 50%
or 60% solids for rheology and adsorption kinetic test work under
different mixing conditions. In each test, a standard amount of acti-
vated carbon was added to the pulp, which was then mixed for
72 h, either in a bottle on a roller, or in one case, in a small stirred
tank. The volume of pulp was between 1 L and 2 L in each case.
Pulp samples were withdrawn periodically over the 72 h test,
and ltered to produce leach solution, which was analyzed for
gold. The results are summarized in Table 1.
The batch kinetic data were then modeled following the Nicol
Fleming methodology (Nicol et al., 1984a,b) by assuming a hypo-
thetical ore throughput of 250,000 dry t/month in a six stage CIP
plant, with a pulp residence time of 2 h per CIP stage and a carbon
concentration of 25 g/L in the pulp. Staying with the early rule of
thumb operating parameters, the up-grading ratio was set at
-1000, to generate loaded carbon containing -5000 g/t gold from
a leachable feed grade of -5 g/t gold. The results are presented in
Table 1.
The rheology proling of the slurry returned a well-dened
Critical Solids Density value of about 62% (Fig. 3), which corre-
sponded to a yield stress for the free-owing leach feed pulp of
about 4 Pa. The low yield stress/high solids density prole in
Fig. 3 indicated a very favorable processing regime for this ore,
488 C.A. Fleming et al. / Minerals Engineering 24 (2011) 484494
for both the leaching and adsorption sections. The effect of solids
density on mass transfer is also indicated in Fig. 3 as a plot of
the kK value (Table 1) as a function of solids density. The function
kK incorporates both the kinetic constant, k, and the equilibrium
constant, K, and its measure provides a useful indication of the
likely outcome of CIP processing of the ore. Values of 100 or more
for kK invariably lead to favorable CIP operating conditions,
whereas values of 75 or less indicate stringent measures (more
adsorption stages, more carbon/stage or lower gold loading) will
have to be adopted to yield satisfactory gold extraction efciency.
Considering the divergent requirements that need to be met
when selecting the solids density for the leaching and adsorption
sections (high solids throughput, good mass transfer kinetics, good
suspension of carbon particles in the pulp), the optimum pulp den-
sity for this project will probably be around 55%, based on the Fig. 3
prole, where the yield stress was only 1 Pa.
To convert the k and K constants in Table 1 into proles of gold
in solution and on carbon across a multi-stage continuous CIP
plant, the following inputs were plugged into the model:
v Constants generated in the batch adsorption test.
v Slurry owrate and solids density.
v Number of adsorption tanks.
v Adsorption tank volume.
v Gold on the stripped carbon.
v Carbon owrate (reported as percentage of carbon inventory
advanced/24 h).
One of two strategies was then followed to achieve proles of
gold in solution and on the carbon across all the CIP stages: either
the carbon concentration was set and the gold tenor in the barren
solution was varied, or the gold tenor in the barren solution was
xed and the carbon concentration was varied.
The model outputs include the following, some of which were
calculated from the kinetic model parameters, whilst others are
based on a simple mass balance across the circuit:
v Proles of gold in solution, on the carbon and in the ore across
all the stages.
v Carbon residence time/stage.
v Pulp residence time/stage.
v Carbon concentration.
v Carbon owrate.
v Circuit lling time slurry.
v Circuit lling time carbon.
v Plant ramp-up time to steady state.
v Carbon inventory (per stage and total).
v Gold lockup in the plant (on the carbon).
v Individual and cumulative CIP or CIL tank volumes.
v Inter-stage and overall gold leaching efciency.
v Inter-stage and overall gold adsorption efciency.
v Overall gold recovery.
When the kinetic data in Table 1 were modeled using the Nicol
Fleming methodology (Nicol et al., 1984a,b), the model outputs
and gold proles shown in Tables 2 and 3 were obtained. The re-
sults in Table 3 show the following:
v The rst three Tests (1, 2 and 3) showed the effect of increasing
the pulp density from 40% to 50% to 60% solids. The owrate of
pulp decreased with increasing pulp density, and the size of the
CIP tanks was reduced proportionately so that the pulp resi-
dence time per stage remained constant at 2 h. This is what
would be done in a commercial plant to take full advantage of
being able to operate at higher pulp density. The amount of car-
bon in each stage was kept the same, but the rate at which the
carbon was advanced was varied in proportion to the concen-
tration of gold in solution so that the up-grading ratio remained
constant at 1000. The results in Table 3 show that there was
practically no difference in gold metallurgical performance at
40% and 50% solids, but that the performance deteriorated at
60% solids. Gold extraction per stage was -70% for Tests 1
and 2, but dropped to -60% in Test 3, which resulted in an
increase in the predicted soluble losses from the last stage, from
0.003 mg/L to 0.019 mg/L. Intuitively, one might predict that
the optimum pulp density is 50%, based on these results, but
as shown in the next section, a more detailed cost/benet anal-
ysis is needed to arrive at the true optimum.
v The effect of the rotational speed of the bottle roller on mass
transfer was considered in Tests 2 and 4, by doubling the speed
in Test 4 relative to Test 2 (which was the normal operating
mode for the test). The kinetic constants and proles were
almost identical in the two scenarios, which indicated that the
rate of loading of gold cyanide onto carbon in a rolling bottle
test is rather insensitive to the rate at which the bottle is rolled.
The inside of the bottle was smooth in both cases, and the
results would probably have been different had the bottles been
bafed.
v Mixing was more efcient in a stirred tank (Test 5, kK = 159)
than in the bottle roller tests (Tests 2 and 4, kK = -90), and this
translated to improved CIP performance. The predicted amount
Table 1
Effects of mixing efciency, carbon concentration and pulp density on rate of extraction of gold cyanide by activated carbon in small batch reactors (carbon conc. 1 g/L).
Test Test conditions Gold in solution (mg/L) versus time (h) Constants
Pulp dens (%) Mixing 0 2 4 8 12 24 72 k K kK
1 40 Slow, bottle 4.92 3.84 3.13 2.36 1.85 1.12 0.50 0.017 6014 101
2 50 Slow, bottle 4.92 3.87 3.25 2.52 2.02 1.24 0.52 0.015 5912 90
3 60 Slow, bottle 4.92 4.29 3.42 2.91 2.56 1.73 0.92 0.021 3250 70
4 50 Fast, bottle 4.92 3.98 3.18 2.57 2.05 1.31 0.56 0.017 5373 89
5 50 Stirred tank 4.92 3.34 2.56 1.94 1.65 1.07 0.54 0.034 4635 159
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
40 45 50 55 60 65 70
Solids density, % wt.
Y
i
e
l
d

S
t
r
e
s
s
,

y
0
,

P
a
50
60
70
80
90
100
110
k
K
CS
kK
ty0
Leaching
and CIL
CCD Merrill
- Crowe
Fig. 3. The effects of solids density on yield stress and the rate of adsorption of gold
cyanide on carbon for a Canadian gold ore.
C.A. Fleming et al. / Minerals Engineering 24 (2011) 484494 489
of gold extracted in each stage of CIP increased from -70% with
the bottle roller kinetic data to -75% with the stirred tank data,
and resulted in lower barren solution gold losses in the latter
case. In our experience, the kinetic performance that is achieved
in large conventional CIP tanks is slightly better than that of a
rolling bottle, while the performance of smaller, well-mixed
tanks such as Pumpcells is better simulated by small laboratory
stirred tanks.
v It was possible to achieve higher predicted loading of gold on
the carbon in Test 3 because of the higher gold concentration
in solution, which in turn resulted from operating at a high pulp
density. The elution and regeneration plants would be less than
half the size for a CIP plant based on the loading achieved in
Test 3 versus that in achieved in Test 1. One of the negative con-
sequences of operating a plant with high gold loading, however,
is the increased amount of gold that is permanently locked up in
the CIP plant, which is also well illustrated by the data in
Table 3.
3.2. CIP plant design optimization
The results generated in Section 3.1 above have been used to
answer questions such as:
1. What happens when the size of the tanks is decreased and the
pulp residence time in CIP is lowered, as happens when Pump-
cells are used as against conventional CIP tanks?
2. What happens if the amount of carbon in each stage is
decreased while keeping the carbon advance rate the same?
3. How sensitive is the plant performance to the target loading of
gold on the carbon in CIP Stage 1?
4. How sensitive is the plant performance to the amount of gold
on the eluted/regenerated carbon that is recycled to the last
stage of CIP?
5. In order to compensate for the slow mass transfer at 60% pulp
density (Test 5), how many extra CIP stages must be built to
achieve the same gold extraction efciency as achieved at 40
and 50% solids . . . or how much faster would the carbon need
to be advanced through the plant?
Tests 2 and 3 in Tables 13 were used as the baseline conditions
for the modeling exercise, and the results are summarized in Ta-
ble 4 (model inputs, with the step change highlighted in bold), Ta-
bles 5 and 6 (model outputs). The following conclusions can be
drawn from the model outputs:
v The size of the CIP tanks was halved for Run 6 compared to the
tank size for Run 2, yet the predicted proles for Runs 2 and 6
were identical. This demonstrates that the size of the CIP tanks
and the residence time of pulp in the CIP circuit have no inu-
ence on metallurgical performance. This is the principle that is
applied in the design of the Pumpcell contactors to reduce plant
footprint and lower capital costs.
v The variable that has the greatest impact on plant performance
is the amount of carbon in each stage (not its concentration).
This is illustrated in Run 7, where the amount of carbon in each
stage was halved relative to Run 2, whilst keeping the carbon
concentration the same at 25 g/L. It can be seen that plant per-
formance deteriorated signicantly, with barren solution gold
losses increasing from 0.003 to 0.012 mg/L.
v The other plant operating variable that has a signicant impact
on plant performance is the up-grading ratio. Increasing the up-
grading ratio and lowering the carbon advance rate is benecial
on the one hand as it reduces the size of the elution and regen-
eration plants and lowers both capital and operating costs. But
operating the plant at higher gold loadings slows the rate of
adsorption of gold cyanide onto carbon and increases the gold
losses in the barrens solution. This can be seen by comparing
Table 2
CIP plant operating conditions for ve Tests examining the effects of mixing efciency and pulp density on metallurgical results.
Test number 1 2 3 4 5
Mixing type Bottle, slow Bottle, slow Bottle, slow Bottle, fast Stirred, tank
Kinetic constant, kK 101 90 70 89 159
Pulp density,% 40 50 60 50 50
Pulp owrate, m
3
/h 639 466 347 466 466
Pulp time/ CIP tank, h 2 2 2 2 2
CIP tank volume, m
3
1280 930 700 930 930
Number of CIP tanks 6 6 6 6 6
Carbon inventory/tank, t 23 23 23 23 23
Carbon conc in pulp, g/L 18 25 33 25 25
Carbon time/CIP tank, h 100 67 44 67 67
Carbon advance rate, t/day 12.5 8.3 5.6 8.3 8.3
Gold up-grading ratio 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000
Table 3
Model-predicted variations in CIP plant performance as a function of changes in mixing efciency and pulp rheology.
Gold in solution proles (mg/L) Gold on carbon proles (g/t)
Test number 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
Feed 3.28 4.92 7.38 4.92 4.92
CIP1 1.04 1.41 2.91 1.49 1.23 3280 4920 7380 4920 4920
CIP 2 0.331 0.406 1.14 0.45 0.305 1040 1411 2896 1487 1391
CIP 3 0.105 0.116 0.45 0.136 0.077 328 403 1126 448 392
CIP 4 0.033 0.033 0.171 0.041 0.019 102 114 428 133 109
CIP 5 0.010 0.009 0.062 0.012 0.005 30 31 152 38 29
CIP 6 0.003 0.003 0.019 0.003 0.001 7 7 43 9 6
Gold locked up, kg 111 160 280 164 159
490 C.A. Fleming et al. / Minerals Engineering 24 (2011) 484494
the proles in Runs 2, 8 and 9, where the up-grading ratio was
varied from 610 to 1000 to 1420, resulting in an increase in sol-
uble gold losses from 0.001 to 0.003 to 0.007 mg/L. However, as
can be seen in Run 10, it is possible to achieve both high gold
loading on the carbon (7000 g/t) and low barrens (0.002 mg/L)
by installing one extra CIP tank. To arrive at an economic opti-
mum design, a simple trade off analysis can be made of the
once-off capital cost penalty of an extra CIP tank versus the life-
time operating cost benet of a lower carbon ow to elution
and regeneration.
v The loading of gold cyanide onto activated carbon is a reversible
reaction, and therefore the amount of gold on the carbon in any
CIP tank affects the rate of adsorption of gold onto that carbon.
This effect is most critical in the last CIP adsorption stage,
because any gold that is not extracted there is lost to the tail-
ings. Therefore, in order to consistently achieve low barren
losses, it is important to maintain a low concentration of gold
on the carbon in the last stage, which means the carbon must
always be eluted efciently. This is illustrated in Run 11, where
it can be seen that increasing the amount of gold on the eluted
carbon that is recycled to CIP 6 from 0 to 50 g/t resulted in an
increase in the soluble losses from 0.003 mg/L (Run 2) to
0.011 mg/L. Some operating CIP plants even struggle to elute
their carbon to less than 100 g/t, and this obviously impacts
gold recovery negatively at those operations.
v The metallurgical cost of operating the CIP adsorption section
at too high a pulp density is illustrated in the proles for Test 3 in
Table 3, where the predicted soluble gold losses increased from
0.003 mg/L to 0.019 mg/L when the pulp density was increased
from 50% to 60% solids. For a plant treating 250,000 t/month of
ore, this is equivalent to a net gold loss of 2.7 kg/month, which
is worth almost $100,000/month at a gold price of $1100/oz.
Against this loss, the cost benet of operating at the higher pulp
density is realized in smaller CIP tanks (700 m
3
at 60% solids
versus 930 m
3
at 50% solids) and a decrease in the amount of
carbon advanced to elution and regeneration (5.6 tons/day
versus 8.3 tons/day), which lowers both capital and operating
costs. Runs 12 and 13 in Tables 46 show that the CIP plant
can in fact be operated at the higher pulp density (60%) without
suffering higher gold losses in the barrens. In Run 12 lowbarrens
Table 4
CIP plant operating conditions for Tests examining the effects of varying the plant design and operating parameters.
Test number 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 3
Run number 2 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Kinetic const, kK 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 70 70
Pulp density,% 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 60 60
Pulp owrate, m
3
/h 466 466 466 466 466 466 466 347 347
Pulp time/CIP tank, h 2 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2
CIP tank volume, m
3
930 465 465 930 930 930 930 700 700
Number of CIP tanks 6 6 6 6 6 7 6 9 6
Carbon inventory/tank, t 23 23 11.5 23 23 23 23 23 23
Carbon conc. g/L 25 50 25 25 25 25 25 33 33
Carbon time/tank, h 67 67 33 44 99 99 67 99 53
Carbon advance, t/day 8.3 8.3 8.3 12.5 5.6 5.6 8.3 5.6 10.4
Gold up-grade ratio 1000 1000 1000 610 1420 1420 1000 1000 530
Table 5
Model-predicted variations in CIP proles of gold in solution as a function of change in plant design and operating parameters.
Proles of gold in solution (mg/L)
Run number 2 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Feed 4.92 4.92 4.92 4.92 4.92 4.92 4.92 7.38 7.38
CIP1 1.41 1.41 1.849 1.134 1.715 1.715 1.419 2.91 1.98
CIP2 0.406 0.406 0.694 0.261 0.597 0.597 0.413 1.150 0.530
CIP3 0.116 0.116 0.260 0.060 0.207 0.208 0.124 0.454 0.142
CIP4 0.033 0.033 0.096 0.014 0.071 0.072 0.041 0.179 0.038
CIP5 0.009 0.009 0.035 0.003 0.023 0.025 0.018 0.070 0.010
CIP6 0.003 0.003 0.012 0.001 0.007 0.008 0.011 0.027 0.002
CIP7 0.002 0.010
CIP 8 0.004
Eluted carbon 0 0 0 0 0 0 50 0 0
Table 6
Model-predicted variations in CIP proles of gold on the carbon as a function of changes in plant design and operating parameters.
Proles of gold on the carbon (g/t)
Run number 2 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
CIP1 4920 4920 4920 3000 7000 7000 5020 7398 3929
CIP2 1411 1411 1842 691 2433 2438 1632 2920 1053
CIP3 403 403 684 159 840 847 540 1152 281
CIP4 114 114 249 36 285 292 187 454 74
CIP5 31 31 85 8 91 99 73 178 19
CIP6 7 7 23 2 24 32 37 69 4
CIP7 8 26
CIP 8 9
Eluted carbon 0 0 0 0 0 25 50 0
Gold locked up, kg 160 160 91 91 250 250
C.A. Fleming et al. / Minerals Engineering 24 (2011) 484494 491
were achieved under the same operating conditions as Test 3,
by increasing the number of CIP tanks from 6 to 8 stages. In
Run 13 low barrens were achieved by increasing the carbon
advance rate and lowering the gold on the loaded carbon from
7000 g/t to 4000 g/t. In the latter case, the advantage of a smaller
elution/regeneration plant is lost, but there is still some capital
cost advantage to be gained from the smaller CIP tanks.
3.3. Using the model to design pilot plant operating conditions
A major laboratory and pilot pant campaign was conducted by
Gold Fields of South Africa in 2009, to examine the feasibility of
re-treating the tailings from their historic Johannesburg-area gold
mining activities, for the recovery of gold and uranium (Fleming
et al., 2010). The owsheet that was developed included multiple
unit operations such as otation, pressure oxidation, acid leaching
and strong base resin in pulp for uranium recovery, and the nal
steps in the owsheet involved neutralization of the uranium plant
tailings, cyanidation and CIP for gold recovery.
Prior to running the CIP pilot plant, the optimum pulp density
for the gold circuit was determined by rheological studies, and
the data were used to generate the yield stress plot that was shown
earlier in Fig. 2. The pulp displayed fairly poor rheological charac-
teristics owing to the presence of a fairly high concentration of me-
tal hydroxide and gypsum precipitates following acid leaching (for
uranium) and neutralization, and a solids density of 45% was rec-
ommended for the feed to leaching and CIP. The rate of adsorption
of the leached gold cyanide onto carbon was therefore then mea-
sured in a batch test at that pulp density.
To ensure the mass transfer coefcient for gold cyanide loading
was directly transferable to the pilot plant with no scale up con-
cerns, the rate of loading was measured in the exact same contac-
tors, with the same mixers, as would be used in the pilot plant. The
modeling procedure described in Sections 3.1 and 3.2 above was
applied to determine the optimum number of adsorption tanks
for the pilot plant, as well as the concentration of carbon in the
tanks and the advance rate of carbon. The model then predicted
the proles of gold in solution and on the carbon that would be
achieved in the pilot plant at steady state. The results are presented
in Table 7, and show that the model provided a good simulation of
the future pilot plant performance.
Mass transfer in the full scale plant may not be as efcient as in
the small pilot plant CIP tanks, and actual plant performance may
not quite match that of the pilot plant. As pointed out earlier, this
can be compensated by increasing the amount of carbon in the full
scale adsorption tanks, which can always be done sometime after
start up.
The real value of the modeling exercise for this project stemmed
from the fact that there was only sufcient pulp to feed a small CIP
pilot plant for about three weeks, at a owrate of -8 L/hr. Since the
overall residence time of carbon in the circuit was going to be at
least 10 days, it was very important to start up the pilot plant at
something close to the nal optimum operating conditions, and
to attain steady state within a few days at most. To this end, small
batches of activated carbon were pre-loaded with gold cyanide to
the concentrations predicted by the model for the various stages
of the plant. These pre-loaded batches of carbon were placed in
each stage of the pilot plant at start up, and this allowed the pilot
plant to reach its steady state performance about one week sooner
than would have been the case starting with fresh carbon in every
stage.
Because of the low gold grade of the feed to this CIP plant, it is
going to be important for Gold Fields to minimize operating costs.
And since eluting and regenerating carbon is traditionally one of
the highest operating cost items in CIP and CIL plants, it was desir-
able to demonstrate in the pilot plant that high gold loading on the
carbon was achievable. The model was invaluable in this regard
too, as it showed that the CIP plant would be able to achieve good
gold extraction efciency with a gold loading of >1500 g/t, which
represented an excellent up-grading ratio of about 4000. Con-
dence in the model permitted starting up the pilot plant with this
aggressive gold loading target, once again saving valuable time in
the overall program. Faith in the model was justied by the pilot
plant, which consistently achieved a gold loading of >1500 g/t from
a feed solution grade of <0.4 mg/L, whilst maintaining barren solu-
tion losses of only -0.01 mg/L.
3.4. CIP or CIL?
The question of whether a new carbon adsorption plant should
be CIP or CIL is frequently raised for greeneld projects. In a CIP
plant, leaching is complete before the rst adsorption tank, and
gold is then recovered from the leached pulp in a series of (typi-
cally) 410 dedicated carbon adsorption tanks. In a CIL plant, the
carbon is added directly into the leach tanks, with the claimed
advantage of lowering capital costs by eliminating the CIP adsorp-
tion tanks.
But there are disadvantages to operating in CIL mode that need
to be taken into consideration when selecting the best process (CIP
or CIL) for a particular application. As pointed out earlier, the rate
of adsorption of gold cyanide onto activated carbon is slow under
all conditions, and is proportional to the concentration of gold in
solution. In a CIL plant, a proportion of the leachable gold has not
yet leached when the slurry rst encounters activated carbon,
and the kinetic driving force for adsorption is diminished relative
to a CIP plant where all the leachable gold is in solution before
the rst carbon adsorption tank. This causes a further retardation
of the already slow rate of gold adsorption on carbon in a CIL plant
compared to CIP.
A second disadvantage of the CIL process is the fact that the
carbon adsorption tanks are typically at least ve times larger
than CIP adsorption tanks (because they are designed for leach
Table 7
Model-predicted and actual performance in a CIP pilot plant treating a low grade gold feed.
Design operating criteria Pilot plant gold proles in solution and on the carbon (mg/L; g/t)
Stage Model predicted Actual pilot plant
Mixing type Stirred Solution Carbon Solution Carbon
Pulp density, 46 Feed 0.37 0.38
Pulp ow, L/h 8.2 CIP1 0.25 1782 0.27 1532
CIP tanks 6 CIP2 0.17 1178 0.20 1144
Kinetic constant, kK 153 CIP3 0.11 754 0.13 813
Pulp time/tank, h 0.5 CIP4 0.07 457 0.08 476
Carbon time/tank, h 48 CIP5 0.04 249 0.04 277
Carbon conc, g/L 20 CIP6 0.02 102 0.01 125
Gold up-grade ratio 4000 Eluted 50 0
492 C.A. Fleming et al. / Minerals Engineering 24 (2011) 484494
residence time, rather than adsorption residence time). Conse-
quently, the carbon concentration in the pulp can be ve times less
in CIL than in CIP for an equivalent carbon inventory in the plant,
and this translates into increased pumping costs when carbon is
advanced through the circuit, and increased back mixing of pulp,
when pulp with a low concentration of gold is pumped up the cir-
cuit into a tank with a higher gold content.
These disadvantages of CIL are turned to advantage when treat-
ing preg robbing ores. In this case, it is benecial to keep the con-
centration of gold in solution as low as possible by rapidly
adsorbing the leached gold onto activated carbon, before it has a
chance to adsorb onto the naturally occurring preg robbing constit-
uents of the ore. Overall gold recovery from preg robbing ores is
higher with the CIL process than with CIP.
The slower gold cyanide adsorption kinetics in CIL can be com-
pensated by increasing the amount of activated carbon in the plant.
The SGS model predicts that signicantly more carbon is needed
for a CIL plant than for a CIP plant, for the same metallurgical per-
formance. In SGS experience, CIL is only competitive with CIP when
the ore is preg robbing or when the rate of leaching is very fast. In
this regard, a useful rule of thumb is that at least 8090% of the
leachable gold should be in solution before the rst CIL adsorption
tank, and this amount of pure leaching capacity should always be
designed into the circuit. If the leaching rate is too slow to meet
this requirement, CIP will almost certainly produce lower operat-
ing and capital costs than CIL, for an equivalent gold extraction
performance. This stems from lower carbon inventories, less gold
lockup in the adsorption circuit, plus the potential for higher gold
loading on the carbon and smaller elution and regeneration facili-
ties in a CIP plant. The gold that is loaded on the carbon remains
locked up in the plant for the life of the mine, reducing the net
present value of this asset to essentially zero for a long-life mine.
The example presented in Table 8 was taken from a study con-
ducted by SGS Minerals, for a new gold plant in which about 2 mil-
lion tons of ore grading -2 g/t gold would be milled per annum,
and processed either through a CIL or a CIP plant. The optimum
pulp density (45% solids) was established by rheology testing,
and leaching and adsorption kinetic proles were then determined
at the optimum pulp density. The same operating criteria were ini-
tially set for CIL and CIP plants (total leach time, number of adsorp-
tion stages, carbon inventory, gold up-grading ratio, etc.), and
applied to both the CIL and the CIP model. These criteria and pre-
dicted proles are identied as CIL 1 and CIP in Table 8.
The proles of gold in solution for CIL 1 and CIP show that
the CIL plant performed poorly compared to the CIP plant, under
the same operating regime, with predicted gold barren solution
losses of 0.09 mg/L for CIL versus 0.01 mg/L for the CIP plant con-
guration. This difference was equivalent to almost 200 kg of gold
losses per annum, which is worth $7 million pa at current gold
prices. The plant conguration presented in Table 8 as CIL 2 illus-
trates the modications that would be needed in the CIL plant for it
to achieve the same gold extraction efciency as the CIP plant.
These include almost doubling the carbon inventory from 7.5 to
14.5 t/stage, doubling the amount of gold locked up in the plant
and increasing the number of adsorption stages from 6 to 7.
4. Conclusions
Activated carbon-based processes are pervasive in the gold
mining industry, and about 70% of all the new gold that is mined
each year is processed via adsorption of gold cyanide onto acti-
vated carbon. These processes are very efcient metallurgically
and robust mechanically, and their implementation generally re-
sults in improved gold recovery compared to competing processes,
at lower overall capital and operating costs.
These inherent strengths of carbon-based processes have led to
a casual approach to the design of new plants, as well as the
on-going operational optimization of existing plants. In many
cases, capital and operating costs are higher than they should be,
and gold recovery is not as efcient as it could be in a well run
plant.
The metallurgical performance of carbon-based plants depends
primarily on the rate of mass transfer of gold cyanide from the
leach solution onto the carbon granules in the adsorption tanks,
which in turn is a sensitive function of parameters such as the rhe-
ology of the pulp, the intensity of agitation of the pulp and the con-
centration of gold in solution. It is possible to measure the mass
transfer rate in simple, small scale batch tests in the laboratory,
and then, by use of unsophisticated mathematical models, to trans-
late this data to simulate the operational performance of a multi-
stage, continuous counter-current carbon plant. This methodology
allows cost/benet and sensitivity analyses to be conducted on
various plant congurations, which in turn allows the optimumde-
sign and plant operating conditions to be established. . .rapidly and
inexpensively, with a minimum amount of sample.
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Table 8
Relative performances of CIP and CIL for plants treating the same feed with the same metallurgical performance targets.
Design criteria Plant conguration Gold in solution proles (mg/L)
CIL 1 CIP CIL 2 Stage CIL 1 CIP CIL 2
Pulp ow, m
3
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Kinetic constant, kK 94 94 94 Tank 2 0.55 0.32 0.32
Leach time before carbon, h 6 36 6 Tank 3 0.25 0.13 0.15
Gold leached before carbon, % 72 96 72 Tank 4 0.16 0.05 0.08
Adsorption tank size, m
3
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Adsorption tanks 6 6 7 Tank 6 0.09 0.01 0.02
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