Application of leaching kinetics modelling to a gold cyanide leach plant by using real plant data

Gold cyanide leach kinetics modeling was applied to the Bergama Ovacik gold cyanide leach plant in Turkey by processing the real plant data without need of any laboratory work. For this aim, solid ore samples were taken from each leaching tanks and analysed for gold contents as Au ppm while plant variables such as solid % concentrations in each tank, feed rate of plant as megagrams per hour (Mg/h), slurry flow rate as m3/h and the slurry residence times in each tank calculated and noted for modelling study. Five sampling work performed at plant at different times. Each sampling data were modelled seperately by the Anglo-American Research Laboratories (AARL) leach kinetics model to obtain five seperate model parameters and regression coefficient (R2) values. Then, total five sampling data were all together modelled to obtain just one model equation and R2 value to represent the plant generally. All R2 values were above 0.90 indicating that the AARL gold leaching kinetics model fits well on real plant leaching conditions. By using the model parameters, the residual gold contents in each tank were predicted for different possible ore feed rate tonnages such as 80, 90, 100, 110 and 120 megagrams per hour. Thus, leaching recoveries for any ore feed rate would be estimated for possible tonnage increases in the future.