Following up on the last blog post talking about the purpose of agglomeration drums, I thought it would be a good opportunity to share a couple videos of agglomeration drums in operation. I have two videos this time, one showing crushed ore being fed to two Sepro 3x8m agglomeration drums in Mexico and the other showing material being agglomerated inside the drum. If a picture is worth a thousand words then a video should be worth somewhat more than that so I can feel okay keeping this post brief. . . 

As always, feel free to contact Sepro directly with any questions or comments!

I often get questions about the purpose of agglomeration in heap leaching operations so I thought this blog post would be a good opportunity to give a brief overview of the agglomeration process as well as talk about when it is and isn't necessary. When an ore is crushed, often a lot of fine particles are created. These particles can prevent leaching solution from moving evenly through a heap and this can dramatically decrease recovery. Agglomeration solves this problem by sticking the fine particles either to each other or to larger particles in the ore so that the leach solution can flow evenly through the ore for maximum recovery. Continue reading for a more detailed explanation . . . 

Sacre-Coeur Minerals issued a press release recently talking about gold production increases at their properties in  North-central Guyana. More specifically, they are now using a Falcon Concentrator in their refinery which, along with other process equipment, allows them to efficiently produce relatively high purity dore bullion ingots without the use of mercury. 

"New equipment in the refinery, which processes mine concentrates, includes a Falcon centrifugal concentrator and attendant screens and materials handling equipment, final gravity cleaning equipment and an electronically controlled smelting furnace. The new equipment, which has ample capacity to process all mine concentrate produced, enables the Company to efficiently produce relatively high purity dore bullion ingots without the use of mercury. Use of secondary and tertiary gravity concentration to “clean” the mine concentrate has shown that slightly more than 50% of the recovered gold particles are smaller than 100 mesh (150 microns), with more than half of this fraction consisting of particles smaller than 100 microns." - Sacre-Coeur Minerals, October 2011

The Falcon L40 (SB40) is the industry standard for bench-scale gravity gold recovery testwork. High G-forces allow the Falcon L40 to capture extemely fine gold particles and provide accurate results which can be directly scaled up to industrial applications. Universal Gold Mining Corp. recently used the Falcon L40 to prove excellent gold recovery at their Toldafria property in Colombia without the use of cyanide. Gravity testwork is an simple and inexpensive way to generate solid metallurgical information and increase investor confidence. Please read Universal Gold Mining Corp's press release below and contact Sepro for more information on Falcon L40 bench-scale testwork....

Claude Deveau, P.Eng., Chief Metallurgist has recently written a paper about his experience with Continuous Falcon Concentrators at the Tantalum Mining Corp. of Canada’s Lac Du Bonnet Operation.  See below excerpt of the Author’s overview. . . . .