Goldplat Recovery (Pty) Limited SA - South Africa

Having built its reputation over a 30-year period, Goldplat Recovery’s technology provides an economic method for mines to dispose of waste materials while at the same time adhering to a mine’s environmental obligations.

Goldplat Recovery operates from a 22 hectare freehold site based near Benoni in Gauteng, which is near the centre of the East Rand Goldfield. After testing to establish assay, moisture content, recoverability and size, Goldplat Recovery purchases the materials from the mine operator when they become available, which helps management to schedule production in an efficient manner and makes it more difficult for potential competitors to enter the market.

Goldplat Recovery’s extraction processes and multiple process lines enable it to keep materials separate, which provides a high degree of flexibility when proposing a solution for a particular type of material. The processes which are employed include roasting in a rotary kiln, crushing, milling, thickening, flotation, gravity concentrators, leaching, CIL, elution and smelting of bullion.

Production is scheduled to make the most efficient use of the materials taking into account the ore grade and anticipated recovery factors. Raw materials are blended and routed to the various plants in an effort to ensure that production levels are reasonably consistent from month to month. In some cases, similar material can be treated in different plants. The wide variety of materials stockpiled means that it can benefit from being able to blend materials for more effective processing.

Precious metals are usually recovered from materials within a single process. In some cases, there may be a second process which takes place many months afterwards, for instance where the residue from processing very high-grade material is left to oxidize in a stock dam in order to enhance the overall recovery rate. Such stock dams can contain substantial amounts of gold and PGM. Goldplat Recovery’s plant is designed to process a variety of material, such as:

• Woodchips, which are generated from underground mine supports which become caught up in the ore being processed. They are screened off after the milling stage of the mine operator’s processing plant;


• Vlei material, which is generated in the vicinity of the mine operator’s processing plant and which tends to accumulate in settlement dams or vleis;


• Fine carbon, which is generated when modern processing plant re-processes activated carbon for reuse. The abraded carbon grains are collected by screens or filters in the mine operator’s processing plant;


• Waste grease, which when replaced is re-processed by Goldplat Recovery to recover spillages of ore which has stuck to the grease;


• Liners, which are used to protect the mill shell used in the mine operator’s processing plant. Made of rubber or steel alloys, they collect small amounts of gold or precious metals which can be liberated through the Group’s processes.

Any product which contains precious metals is of interest to Goldplat Recovery’s research team who will investigate methods to extract metal from types of material which have not previously been processed by it.