One possible Answer: The Albion Process“MrBubba QUESTION: One of MOY's shortcomings was the fact that they could not successfully process the sulphide ores. Will Novo be able to process those sulphide ores? Dos anybody know?” I do not know if Novo has any desire to move forward with the sulphide ores at this time. I do not believe there is any urgency to do. But the question you raise MrBubba is an excellent one.
What led to MOY’s ruin was not the gold bearing sulphide ore to be processed. It was the attempt to modify an existing mill that was not originally designed to process such ore. Even worse, the MOY management attempted to come up with their own proprietary process for a problem that was already solved years ago.
Albion Process: It was developed in 1994 by Glencore and is patented worldwide. This process costs less and ramps-up faster in a 25% capital-back performance guarantee. The Albion Process™ has real-world success in delivering consistently high recoveries – up to 97% in refractory gold and over 99% in chalcopyrite copper concentrates.
It has much lower capital cost than traditional leaching plants like pressure oxidation (POx) plants and because it operates at atmospheric pressure, it completely avoids the myriad of risks of POx plants. Take a look:
https://www.albionprocess.com/en/flowsheet-options/TechnicalDocuments/The%20Albion%20Process%20for%20Refractory%20Gold.pdf It’s also dramatically less expensive to operate, with a recent study suggesting a third lower in ongoing opex costs. Albion Process tolerates a more variable feed and lower grade to work where others fail. It can therefore make some projects feasible and profitable where alternative technologies simply cannot.
It’s incredibly fast to install and commission and very easy to operate.
Albion Process is a combination of ultrafine grinding and oxidative leaching at atmospheric pressure. The feed to the Albion Process are base or precious metal concentrates. The sulphides in the feed are oxidised and valuable metals liberated, with the economic metals recovered by conventional downstream processing.
The Albion Process plants around the world are treating a range of materials including a zinc sulphide concentrate, refractory gold/silver concentrates and chalcopyrite copper concentrates.
So, Novo actually does retain all the gold resources quoted by MOY in their refractory ore. If it ever chooses to exploit these ores, the company may want to simply build a new mill to perform the task.
All possible when revenue is flowing in from their current Nullagine mill set up.
Tx