The Abujar Gold Project is located 30km west from the city of Daloa in the central western region of Côte d’Ivoire. Primero was engaged by Tietto Minerals Limited to complete a turnkey design of a gold mineral processing plant, capable of processing 4.5Mtpa of ore and producing over 200,000 oz of gold a year. As well as being responsible for the design, Primero assisted in construction management and led all dry and wet commissioning activities. Primero also provided onfield engineering services. ROM ore is crushed via an open single-stage crushing circuit before being stockpiled. The crushed material is then drawn from the stockpile and fed to the comminution circuit, which consists of a single SAG mill in a closed circuit with classification cyclones and recycles pebble crushing.
Of-size material from the overflow of the classification cyclones reports to a conventional Carbon in Pulp (CIP) circuit, where gold is leached from the ore and adsorbed onto activated carbon. The “loaded” carbon (containing the gold) is then passed through the elution circuit, where the gold is desorbed from the carbon and concentrated in the form of a pregnant solution.
The pregnant solution is passed through the electrowinning process to separate the gold from the solution. Via an electrolytic reaction gold is plated onto the cathode of the electrowinning cells, and once complete, is washed off in the form of a gold sludge.
The sludge is then mixed with flux before smelting and forming the gold bullion.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Full construction and commissioning achieved within 12 months of site work commencing.
- Gold was poured on 14th January (approximate 13 kg bullion).
- All site works were completed with no LTI’s, RWI’s or MTI’s.
- Abujar Gold project is Primero’s first constructed gold processing plant, as well as Primero’s first completed job in the African continent.