This article will focus on the TriTank benefits; a system introduced by professional metallurgical engineers, APT. Cyanide dissolving gold is a reaction, just like dissolving sugar in your tea. The better mixed your slurry, the more cyanide is dissolved and the faster it dissolves. Why is this so important? There are some very logical reasons:

• The faster you can make the reaction happen, the smaller the vessel you need to contain the reaction, and thus the lower the capital cost of the plant.
• The quicker the reaction, the better use you make of the cyanide which decomposes with time. Also the better use you make of the oxygen in solution as oxygen is necessary for the gold cyanide reaction.
• Better mixing means a more efficient process and more complete reactions.

Dissolving the gold is only part of the procedure, in the CIL or CIP process the second part of the story is adsorbing the gold back out of the pregnant cyanide solution onto the carbon. The rate of the adsorption reaction is driven by the concentration of the gold in solution, so getting the barren solution away from the carbon particle and getting fresh gold bearing solution to the surface is very important.

In summary, the better the mixing, the better the cyanidation, the more gold you will extract.

The APT TriTank® system offers:

• Extremely efficient mixing
• A smaller and less costly plant
• Less material required to construct
• A smaller plant footprint, thus easier to contain
• More oxygen introduced into solution
• Ease of operation
• Quick and easy installation

APT TriTank® is a more efficient cyanidation/carbon system that is proven in practice.

Available in 20, 40, 80, 200, 300, 400 and 500 cubic metre capacities.  Supplied as complete systems, installed and commissioned by APT.

Many claims have been made here, and APT stands by all of them. TriTank is a properly researched and engineered system, not an assemblage of tanks made in the ‘corner welding shop’. A professional metallurgical solution produced by professional metallurgical engineers. Please continue through the paper here to explore the TriTank development and judge for yourself.

Kevin Peacocke

APT CEO (BSc Eng Min Proc, IOM3, C Eng)

To view a video of the APT TriTank on site, please see below:

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Chw_Dri8NiA[/embed]