You are hereCOMPARING Gold HEAP LEACHING AND CIP Operating and Capital COSTS

COMPARING Gold HEAP LEACHING AND CIP Operating and Capital COSTS

The paragraphs above have shown some technical parameters that let obse rve the efficiency offered by a cyanidation plant employing a CIL process. Now, will be analyzed some economical aspects between a Heap leaching and a CIL processes. For this analysis we will consider a small plant treating an auriferous ore at the rate of 100 ton per day. The gold content is 18 g/t and recovery are 60 y 90% by heap leaching and CIL, respectively. In each case with can have the following costs:

Table 4. Heap leaching and CIL costs.

Item	Heap Leaching (U.S.$)	CIL (U.S.$)
Equipment	1,000,000	2,000,000
Installation	225,000	500,000
Buildings	90,000	200,000
Services	70,000	200,000
Contingencies	135,000	300,000
Total	1,520,000	3,200,000
Operative cost ($/t)	28	34

Observing the results, it is easily note a higher cost for a CIL process. This is due to the energy taken by the mill and agitation system for the tanks. Nevertheless, considering the efficiency offered by each alternative, we can have the following results:

Table 5. Costs based on efficiency of each process.

Item	Heap Leaching (U.S.$)	CIL (U.S.$)
Investment	1,520,000	3,200,000
Operative cost ($/t)	28	34
Gold produced (kg/month)	32.4	48.6
Operative cost ($/oz produced)	80.63	65.27
Investment ($/oz produced)	1459	2047
Incomes ($/month)	416,720	625,080

The results obtained indicate that the operative cost for a CIL process is lower than a Heap Leaching process and the initial investment is higher against a CIL process but that difference can be covered with the major efficiency offered by CIL. Considering a gold price of U.S.$ 400 per ounce, the incomes have a difference of U.S.$ 208,360. In other words CIL gives better production and incomes.

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