PILOT PLANTS

Kappes, Cassiday and Associates strives to meet the needs of operations of all sizes throughout their life of mine. Thus, KCA provides clients reliable pilot plants so when the time comes for them to scale up their operation our clients are prepared to handle the ore in the most effective manner.

The pilot heap leach at Al Hajar, Saudi Arabia, was designed, constructed, and operated by KCA personnel under contract to government organizations. The yellow container is a KCA Model 15 ADR plant fully equipped to produce gold bars on site.

The Boulder Creek 3000 ton test heap leach (below) is one of several that KCA has conducted for clients in the western U.S. This project became the very successful Dee Mine.
This 50 kg per hour flotation pilot plant (below) is complete with thickeners for drying of concentrate and tailings. It was built for KCA’s own use, but we can build similar plants to client specifications.  Additionally, shown below is the typical flowsheet for the plant.

Other typical pilot facilities constructed by KCA include:

  • A container-mounted column-cell pilot flotation plant for a major mining company to use in testing a copper ore in South Africa
  • Two one tonne/day cyanide CIP pilot plants, complete with ore crushing and grinding, and carbon stripping, which are now located in Bolivia and Peru