Kappes, Cassiday & Associates strives to meet the needs of operations of all sizes throughout their life of mine. KCA provides clients with reliable pilot plants so when the time comes for them to scale up their operation, they are prepared to handle the ore in the most effective manner. From the Saudi desert to Bolivian mining country to the Nevada heap leach belt — KCA pilots produce real gold from real ore.
The pilot heap leach at Al Hajar, Saudi Arabia, was designed, constructed, and operated by KCA personnel under contract to government organizations. The yellow container is a KCA Model 15 ADR plant fully equipped to produce gold bars on site — a complete pilot-scale recovery train in a shipping container.
The Boulder Creek 3,000-tonne test heap leach is one of several that KCA has conducted for clients in the western U.S. This project became the very successful Dee Mine — proving the scale-up path from pilot to production.
KCA built a 50 kg per hour flotation pilot plant, complete with thickeners for drying of concentrate and tailings. Originally built for KCA's own use, we can build similar plants to client specifications. Comes with the typical flowsheet for the plant.
Other typical pilot facilities constructed by KCA include:
• A container-mounted column-cell pilot flotation plant for a major mining company to use in testing a copper ore in South Africa
• Two one tonne/day cyanide CIP pilot plants, complete with ore crushing and grinding, and carbon stripping — now located in Bolivia and Peru
Pilot operation de-risks scale-up by validating recoveries, throughput, reagent consumption, and operating procedures before full-scale capital commitment. Programs run from weeks to multiple ore seasons depending on data needs.
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.
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