Recovery Rates based on different minerals

seclymer

Greenie
Jan 13, 2016
14
3
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
Hi all,

I am wondering if someone can tell me what are expected recovery rates of gold based on the other minerals in the concentrate. I am an engineer working on research in this field, and I would greatly appreciate any responses! To be more specific, what I am asking is:

What would be an average recovery rate of gold if a given concentrate was a mixture of gold and black sand? What about if it was gold and gangue?

What I am working on is trying to derive a formula for recovery rates based on the specific gravity differential of the minerals being processed. I am not looking for perfect numbers or anything exact, but anecdotally what you guys expect for recovery percentages (I also know these percentages will differ from machine to machine). Thank you so much for reading and responding!!
 

Upvote 0
Depends on where you are and how experienced you are I think.

I don't think you can pit it in an equation really.

Sorry for being absolutely no help. :-)
 

If I am understanding what you are asking correctly I dont think there is really any way to formulate that . For one thing not all black sands are equal there are a few different types of heavy black sands , also every spot is going to be a different percentage of gold vs black sands so there is just no way to determine that. Sorry if I am misunderstanding the question. Maybe someone else like clay diggins will chime in with more experience on a scientific level.
Good Luck
 

25 or 6 -2 -4
 

unknown without an assay, or known amount per volume. even then the recovery rates of the PPM
would have to be based on method, gravity separation of free mill gold could be as high as 98%,
this gives how river run gravels are calculated; https://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/1312i/report.pdf
gold ore that is processed and extracted by other methods can be as low as 30-40%
https://www.911metallurgist.com/blog/gold-ore-processing-methods-gold-extraction
if you are asking for process and plant controls might look at this paper;
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228013236_Minerals_Recovery_and_Processing

could be I don't understand the question.



FYI - 1 PPM of 2000lb = 1 gram
 

Last edited:
Yeah what they said. If I find gold the recovery rate would be un measurable,
 

"Recovery" how? With a sluice?

If somebody tells me their sluice has a XX% recovery rate then I know they are a shyster trying to shaft me.

Now, if they could tell me why their sluice lost XX% I would be all ears.
 

Hi all,

I am wondering if someone can tell me what are expected recovery rates of gold based on the other minerals in the concentrate. I am an engineer working on research in this field, and I would greatly appreciate any responses! To be more specific, what I am asking is:

What would be an average recovery rate of gold if a given concentrate was a mixture of gold and black sand? What about if it was gold and gangue?

What I am working on is trying to derive a formula for recovery rates based on the specific gravity differential of the minerals being processed. I am not looking for perfect numbers or anything exact, but anecdotally what you guys expect for recovery percentages (I also know these percentages will differ from machine to machine). Thank you so much for reading and responding!!

There are too many variables and unknowns to give you a definitive answer but I did find this thesis along the lines of your questions. https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/831/items/1.0097828.

Good luck and as I told my kids, study hard.
 

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