Application of hydrocyclones for recovery of fine gold from placer material

Alaska and other gold areas have seen a sharp resurgence of placer mining in the last few years. Mines using sluice boxes usually recover gold down to 100 mesh, but recovery of gold finer than this size is a function of particle shape factor, sluice box design and operating parameters. It is felt that a concentrating device is needed to recover gold finer than 100 mesh that may not be recoverable in a sluice box. The device should be capable of processing a large volume of water and solids discharged from the sluice-box. Compound water cyclones, successfully used in the coal processing industry, seem to offer solutions. A system using these devices could recover a concentrate which would be one twenty fifth the size of the original solids in a two stage process. It is not intended to produce a finished product with cyclones, but to reduce bulk so that the reduced concentrate, free of slimes, could further be treated by flotation, gravity methods, or cyanidation to isolate the gold. This report addresses only the application of hydrocyclones for concentrating gold from placer material.Submitted to Mining and Mineral Resources Research Institute, Office of Surface Mining, U.S. Department of Interior, Washington, D.C. Grant No. G519400