GEKKO Systems and CSIRO have signed a series of agreements to commercialise a new technology to allow gold plant operators to determine the gold content in mineral processing slurries in real time. The agreement signals a new level of collaboration between the two organisations who have previously worked together on a number of initiatives.

Gekko’s group manager, Innovation and Collaboration, Richard Goldberg and CSIRO Mineral Resources director Jonathan Law.

The OnLine Gold Analyser (OLGA) is built upon new X-ray fluorescence techniques patented by CSIRO. It is capable of detecting ultra-low levels of gold and other elements from a continuous process stream.

This critical new tool will enable plant metallurgists and operators to monitor and adjust their operations in real time in order to increase recovery and minimise gold losses from process excursions.

“This is a significant breakthrough in on-line XRF analysis for mineral processing operations,” said CSIRO’s Sensing and Sorting program research director Nick Cutmore. “The OnLine Gold Analyser will allow accurate measurement of gold down to tailings grades, well beyond the detection limit of any previously available online XRF analyser. 

“It is an exciting opportunity to team up with an innovative Australian METS company to bring this breakthrough technology to market.”

Complimenting Gekko’s existing Carbon Scout measurement system, the OnLine Gold Analyser will strengthen Gekko’s metallurgical accounting system which is under development in collaboration with Rockwell Automation.

“We are excited for the opportunity to be collaborating with a top Australian research organisation such as CSIRO. We are very confident that the OnLine Gold Analyser will became an invaluable tool for gold plant operators to maximise their processing efficiencies” said Gekko Systems’ group manager of Innovation and Collaboration Richard Goldberg.

“We are already talking with a selected number of companies who are very keen to trial this new technology at their mine sites,” he concluded.

Following the successful testing of the unit in a controlled environment, initial field trials with an Australian gold mining company are being planned for late 2017/early 2018.

Meantime, Gekko has advised that Carbon Scout has reached commercial release stage. The self-contained device collects slurry samples from Carbon-in-Pulp and Carbon-in-Leach tanks to determine distribution of the activated carbon in the pulp for each tank, to a high degree of accuracy.