Operational improvements are a constant work in progress in the mining industry in an effort to enhance operating efficiencies. Oxygen generators for gold mining play an important role in improving safety standards, boosting gold yield rates, and streamlining mineral processing procedures.
What Is the Role of Oxygen in Gold Leaching or Gold Mine Sparging?
Gold extraction is an extremely complex process that involves multiple steps. To begin with, gold-bearing ore (rock material containing gold) is retrieved from the ground during the mining process. The large chunks of rocks must be broken down into smaller, more manageable pieces.
The ore that is extracted from mines is crushed into tiny pieces similar to the consistency, shape, and size of gravel. The crushed ores are then processed even further inside a large spinning metal drum that contains heavy steel balls. As the ore rotates inside the drum the steel balls crush the ore down into a slurry or fine powdery substance.
Water is added to thicken the slurry or powder and form a paste which then goes through various leaching tanks to separate the gold from the rock using a chemical solvent. The chemical solvent is a mixture of cyanide and oxygen. This process also helps convert sulphites into sulphates. Sparging oxygen inside leach tanks and flotation cells ensures that the gas is evenly dispersed and reaches all compounds inside.
Using large amounts of high purity oxygen has a faster gold yield rate than other methods. It also limits the amount of interaction required with toxic chemicals like cyanide for workers.
Given most gold mining sites are located in remote regions, the only way to get consistent access to the necessary volumes of oxygen required for this process is to invest in onsite oxygen generators.
What Are the Benefits of Oxygen Generators in Gold Mining?
There are a lot of indisputable operational, cost-saving, safety enhancing, and environmental benefits to integrating state-of-the-art onsite oxygen generators for gold mining operations.
More Efficient Mining Operations
Onsite oxygen generators for gold mining ensure that operations will always have a steady and reliable supply of oxygen gas. This eliminates the need to rely on liquid oxygen deliveries, especially considering the remote locations of most gold mining operations and precarious and unpredictable nature of oxygen supply in the current supply chain environment.
Oxygen is a core component of the gold leaching process and must always be available so that mining operations can function at optimal speed and capacity. Time is of the essence when it comes to gold leaching and the sparging process, so it’s important that these tasks are completed on schedule. Even the slightest delay in oxygen supply could pose significant financial risks for the entire mining operation.
Lower Operational Costs
Producing oxygen onsite also lowers operational costs. Onsite oxygen generators eliminate the need to order liquid oxygen and wait for deliveries. Oxygen generators pull in ambient air and separate oxygen out of ambient air while maintaining high oxygen purity levels that are required for various operational processes. Cutting out the middleman reduces your operational costs and prevents downtime caused by delivery delays.
Better Production Recovery
Onsite oxygen generation boosts the gold and mineral recovery rates significantly. The faster oxygen is generated, the more gold can be extracted from ores in less time.
Continuous Oxygen Supply
As mentioned, most gold mining operations need a continuous supply of oxygen for various processes and applications in order to boost the gold yield rate.
From a gold leaching and processing perspective, installing onsite oxygen generators ensures an uninterrupted supply of oxygen. Onsite oxygen generators eliminate the risks involved in bulk oxygen shipment delays and ensure that mining operations always have a consistent supply of oxygen with varying purity ratings typically ranging from 90% to 95%.
Also Read: Onsite Nitrogen Gas Generation in the Mining Industry
Onsite Oxygen Generators from Advanced Gas Technologies
Advanced Gas Technologies is one of the leading providers of state-of-the-art low energy consuming onsite oxygen generators in North America. Our PSA and VPSA oxygen generators offer a cost-effective solution that’s capable of meeting all of your industrial application requirements. Contact us today to learn more about our customizable onsite oxygen generators.