Since 1972, KCA has provided lab testing, engineering, and field services for over 1,000 different gold recovery projects. Our plants have earned an outstanding reputation for quality, simplicity, ease of start-up, and fail-safe operation. KCA can provide a complete turnkey project to process your ore in the most cost-effective manner.
Operations above ~4,000 TPD throughput typically justify site-built plants. Custom layouts integrate with existing infrastructure, accommodate unique ore characteristics, and scale to nameplate without modular constraints.
KCA performed the project engineering and construction management for this 4,000 ton-per-day open-pit heap leach gold operation. KCA had turnkey responsibility for offices, power and utilities, and infrastructure as well as processing. The project was brought into production after only 16 weeks of construction, ahead of schedule and under budget at a capital cost of US $7.7 million. As part of initial capital installations, Hog Ranch installed 1,000,000 sq ft of PVC leach pad. KCA supplied the agglomerating drum and conveyor transport/stacking system.
Itos is a US $17 million, 600 tonne/day agitated leach plant which recovers precious metals and base metals from previously processed flotation tailings using a complex acid leach process.
The plant at Ity is typical of KCA's smaller modular plants — the carbon column adsorption/desorption circuit uses an alcohol strip in the same columns. Carbon is replaced once per year. The desorption circuit consists of a tank, heater and solution recirculation system, an electrolytic cell, and a smelting furnace to produce doré bars on site. Modular plants are fully wet-tested in Reno before shipping. Total setup time at remote sites is usually 8 weeks or less.
COMCO Silver is a 1,000 TPD dry-grind / heap leach project treating an oxidized silver ore. This heap leach project is unique in that the ore is fine-crushed to 8 mesh and then reduced in size by dry grinding to 20 mesh prior to agglomeration. Crushing uses a three-stage system with jaw crusher, cone crushers, and a Barmac impactor in closed circuit.
The San Martin project of Glamis Gold Ltd. is a 15,000 tonne/day heap leach which started production in early 2001. Head grade is 0.9 grams/tonne and recovery is 73%. KCA provided the recovery plant on a complete turnkey guaranteed basis. The plant contains two trains with five carbon columns each — total combined flow is 900 m³/hr of solution (4,000 gpm). KCA also provided a separate water treatment plant. KCA's turnkey contract was about $2M of the total $27M project capital cost.
KCA built a complete carbon stripping and regeneration module for Puquio Norte in our Reno fabrication yard. The plant was disassembled, shipped to Bolivia, and reassembled on site by KCA technicians.
KCA built a 200-tonne-per-day flotation process plant for the Tambor Project. Float cells and rear deck are mounted on standard shipping skids, and the rest is easily reassembled at site.
Camino Rojo (ORLA Mining): 1,200 m³/h Merrill-Crowe on 18,000 TPD heap leach. Ivrindi (TÜMAD): 3,200 m³/h ADR plant on 21,100 TPD heap leach. Soledad Mountain (Golden Queen): 600 m³/h Merrill-Crowe. Los Filos (Goldcorp): ADR expanded across 7 modifications to 8,000 m³/h.
A partial list of operations where KCA has fabricated on-site recovery plants.
| Operation | Location | Type | Size |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bolkaradag | Turkey | Merrill-Crowe & Agitated Leach Plant | 200 tons/day |
| Dolores | Mexico | Comminution Circuit to Existing MC | 5,600 tons/day |
| El Castillo | Mexico | Carbon Adsorption | 1,400 m³/hr |
| Hog Ranch | United States | Carbon Adsorption & Strip | 4,000 tons/day |
| Hycroft | United States | 5 Ton Caustic Strip | 5 tons/day |
| Hycroft | United States | Merrill-Crowe | 4,772 m³/hr |
| Itos | Bolivia | Agitated Leach | 600 tons/day |
| Ivrindi | Turkey | Carbon Adsorption | 3,200 m³/hr |
| La Colorada | Mexico | Carbon Adsorption | 1,300 m³/hr |
| La India | Mexico | Carbon Adsorption | 1,400 m³/hr |
| Los Filos | Mexico | Carbon Adsorption | 3,600 m³/hr |
| Los Filos | Mexico | Pumping Expansion | 4,500 m³/hr |
| Los Filos | Mexico | Carbon Adsorption Expansion | 900 m³/hr |
| Mascota | Mexico | Carbon Adsorption | 340 m³/hr |
| Nixon Fork | United States | 1.5 Ton Zadra Strip | 1.5 tons/day |
| Ocampo Heap Leach | Mexico | Merrill-Crowe | 800 m³/hr |
| Ocampo Mill | Mexico | Merrill-Crowe | 233 m³/hr |
| Pinos Altos | Mexico | Merrill-Crowe | 551 m³/hr |
| Potosi | Bolivia | Merrill-Crowe | 150 m³/hr |
| Puquio Norte | Bolivia | Carbon Adsorption & Zadra Strip (1.5-Tonne) | 370 m³/hr |
| Puquio Norte | Bolivia | Carbon Regeneration | 75 kg/hr |
| San Martin | Honduras | Carbon Adsorption | 900 m³/hr |
| Sao Francisco | Brazil | Carbon Adsorption | 700 m³/hr |
| Soledad Heap Leach | United States | Merrill-Crowe | 660 m³/hr |
| South Area | United States | Carbon Adsorption | 3,500 m³/hr |
| Tambor | Guatemala | Gold Flotation | 200 tons/day |
| Tambomayo | Peru | Merrill-Crowe | 1,200 m³/hr |
| Tarkwa | Ghana | Carbon Adsorption/Strip w/ Hot Zn Precip | 700 m³/hr |
| Tarkwa II | Ghana | Carbon Adsorption Tower | 230 m³/hr |
Selected recent projects where KCA delivered this service. All from our portfolio of 500+ engineering projects.
Whether you’re at scoping stage or ready to break ground, KCA has the lab capacity, engineering bench, and EPCM experience to deliver.
Discuss a Site-Built Project →