if the ore at Wiluna is just like Kalgoorlie(i assume your talking superpit) THEN-In 2004 that mine commissioned a gravity circuit($9.6m to recover "very very" fine free gold) consisting of five (5) Knelson KC-XD48 Concentrators and a ConSep ACACIA CS6000 concentrate leach reactor
(SUPERPIT not Focus) and just as beaconsfield who use a competing BIAX process use a similar gravity circuit,How come all of these other companies use a so called "GEKKO and FALCONER GRAVITY CIRCUIT" combination or similar plant which includes an inline pressure reactor to liberate so called nonexistant freegold from stubborn CORSE REFRACTORY ore and then provide a higher grade concentrate for further processing BIOX BIAX CIL or combination thereof.
If it's FML, who also USE THE SAME ADVANCED GRAVITY CIRCUIT(didn't think they were refractory YET,but that's another story)but they have a similar combination,then this enables them to scavenge site trash economically. IN the case of beaconsfield which is refractory,supposedly increased overall yield on installation by around 1% to 1.5% and reduced residency time in their version of the biox circuit and increased yield of free yield gold prior to their version of biox.
No different than Morilla in AFRICA who are also refractory and use a similar gravity circuit combination,rising from less than 10% to 40% free gold.
So your saying WILUNA ORE IS THE SAME AS KALGOORLIE,but it can't be,but it must be,unless it is so unique a refractory ore its from another planet. I'm confused and all the papers and large companies i have been reading of talk of achieving free coarse gold via the use of this combination ON REFRACTORY ORE including Kalgoorlie superpit.
Might i suggest from the outside part of WILUNA's apparent problem maybe the management has been caught up in it's own history and processing dogma AS TECHNOLOGY has left it and its onsite processing staff behind. It may be time for some stick in the mud processing to change and staff who know better,who cannot accept that to move on. Is that what we're seeing,with a great level of discontent being vented here by "KNOWLEGEABLE" ex employees?
Certainly management are trying to address the issue by the look of it. However,up to date it's been mainly larger companies,or innovative smaller companies willing to spend money upfront on plant(such as FML)for increased yields at lower running costs that have done so.
Looks like it's just as i thought,spend some money upfront and kill the costs of running the plant and UP THE YIELD and throughput-although in this case, thru put and cutting processing costs(by spending non-existant money)is irrelevent at the moment. Getting enough of the ore to the mill is the main problem.
Just waiting for the takeover and decent application of modern technology that every "tom dick and harry"refractory or not, seems to be moving to, by a savvy company who can use the tax losses,OR FOR APEX to do it themselves.
Either way new shareholders can win and old ones can regain some of their losses,if APEX doesn't collapse in the meantime.
DYOR+DYODD - Globally GOLD output is increasingly coming from processing more and more refractory ore.
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