Design of a crushing system that improves the crushing efficiency of gold ore at a local mine: Case of Zimbabwe

Abstract

Mining involves a number of processes which are useful in gold extraction. The processes involved are gravity concentrations, flotation, etc. are available for the extraction of gold metal from its ores. The common processes for recovery of gold solution includes: (I) Carbon adsorption, Merrill-Crowe process, (II) electro winning and (III) ion-exchange / solvent extraction. All these processes require the particles involved to be in certain sizes. Hence crushing and grinding are used to attain the required sizes. This leads the mine plant to be set in a way which let the gold extraction process to be attained economically and at a high rate.The local mine, a gold mine in Zimbabwe has been growing for the past years and production of gold ore from the ground has increased. The current crushing setup is operating at 15 tonnes per hour which is low compared to their production rate such that ore from the ground is piling up. This paper addresses the critical design parameters that will increase the crushing capacity of the plant to 35 tonnes per hour.There are three main steps in designing a good crushing plant: process design, equipment selection, and layout. The paper analyses all of these steps