RE: RE: RE: RE: Real picture For me, things may not get "real" at Shafter until I can talk to the plant manager. I just don't know what's up with the low reclamation rate. I get the feeling that things were set up in a similar fashion as at La Negra. The problem with that is La Negra has a Copper/lead/Zinc/Silver mix. High sulfide and naturally hydrophobic.. There is little copper in the Shafter Ore body. The is a very different ore body. In a floatation circuit, what precipitates out is raised by air bubbles, and overflows out. The metal needs to be hydrophobic, or pushed away by water. A Copper rich matrix does this naturally, A low copper matrix, may not, and needs reagents added to it prior to floatation in order for the metals Hydrophobic. (If it doesn't like water, it will not stay in solution, therefor float out on the air bubble.. So, for Shafter ore, much of the money metal is likely the tailings pit. Be glad they haven't run much ore, this needs to be fixed prior to running at a higher rate.
Right now they have contracted out this issue. I would think these folks would be good enough chemists to figure this out without breaking a sweat. I'm sure there is much more to this in bulk. However one shouldn't overthink a plant. Its a large chemistry set up to maximize yeild. Metals captured, non-metals go to tailings, reagents get recycled and water quality needs to be potable once it leaves the plant. Simple right? Sure, easy to get low yield, tough to break 80%.