MMPE 434/524

PROCESSING OF PRECIOUS METAL ORES

Assignment 1

Due Date: January 30, 2019

Placer Miners in the Selenge Region of Mongolia, process about 2000 m3 over a
12 hour day. The process involves feeding a trommel screen with 2 cm openings
and the -2 cm material flows across the primary sluice. After the 12-hour day,
the sluice carpets are cleaned into a tub and then reprocessed processed
through mini-sluice. Mini-sluice product is then panned to recover the free gold.

During cleanup, gold as coarse as 3 mm is recovered in the primary sluice.

To evaluate the performance of the primary sluice, the tailings are diverted to a 1
ton tub and are re-processed using an Icon Centrifuge. The gold recovered from
the centrifuge contain gold with a top size of 150 microns. Similarly, to evaluate
the performance of the mining sluice, mini-sluice tailings are processed using the
Icon Centrifuge. The gold recovered from the centrifuge had a top size of 75
microns.

Question 1 (5 marks).

Estimate the feed rate to the primary sluice in units of tph.

Question 1 (15 marks).

Clifton showed that the number of gold particles in the sample is the main
parameter that determines precision. How many gold particles would be needed
in a sample for the following levels of precision.

a. Relative error of +/- 50% at 95% confidence?

b. Relative error of +/-10% at 95% confidence?
c. Relative error of +/- 50% at 90% confidence?
d. Relative error of +/-10% at 90% confidence?
e. Relative error of +/- 50% at 99% confidence?
f. Relative error of +/-10% at 99% confidence?

Question 2 (25 marks).

What sample size would be needed to achieve each the levels of precision as
listed in question 1 for the primary sluice feed, primary sluice tailings and for the
mini-sluice tailings? Comment on the appropriateness of the precision level -
what would you recommend?

Question 3 (25 marks).

Based on a precision level defined by a relative error of +/-10% at 90%
confidence, use Clift to draft a sample preparation procedure for primary sluice

MINE 434/524 Term 2, 2019

feed, primary sluice tailings and mini-sluice tailings to obtain a sample for fire
assay. Sketch the flowcharts for each sample showing the procedures for each.

Question 4 (30 marks).

One miner found a new region with placer gold. The miner collected a 100 kg
sample and wants to know the gold grade. The sample was riffled into 2 kg sub-
samples, one of which was riffled into 67 one assay ton portions. After fire
assaying each sample, it was found that 40 of the samples had no measureable
gold. When grades from all 68 samples were averaged, the estimated sample
grade was 1 g/t Au.

a. What is the effective size of the gold particles?

b. What sample size is needed for a precision of 95% confidence and a relative
error of +/-50%?
c. What sample size is needed for a precision of 90% confidence and a relative
error of +/-10%?
d. What would you do with the remaining 98 kg to obtain an accurate assay?
Propose a procedure and be specific to justify each step based on Clifton et
al. Sketch a flowchart showing the procedure.

MINE 434/524 Term 2, 2019