What a Pilot Validates
Recoveries (heap leach height, leach rate), reagent consumptions, equipment wear, operator workflow, environmental performance, downstream-circuit response, and integration issues that bench tests cannot predict.
Pilot operation is the safest, most rigorous way to validate a mining flowsheet before capital commit. KCA has designed, built, and operated pilot plants on four continents — the yellow container KCA Model 15 ADR plant at Al Hajar (Saudi Arabia) was a complete gold-producing pilot in a shipping container, and the Boulder Creek 3,000-tonne pilot heap leach became the very successful Dee Mine.
Recoveries (heap leach height, leach rate), reagent consumptions, equipment wear, operator workflow, environmental performance, downstream-circuit response, and integration issues that bench tests cannot predict.
Field-scale pilot heaps from 200 to 3,000+ tonnes. Drip irrigation, PLS collection, mini-ADR or carbon column for gold recovery. Operating periods from 90 days to multiple seasons.
KCA Model 15 ADR pilot plant — complete crushing, leaching, carbon adsorption, strip, and electrowinning in a standard shipping container. Producing real doré bars at pilot scale.
KCA built a 50 kg/h flotation pilot plant complete with thickeners for concentrate and tailings drying. Available for client lease or to be replicated for client-specific testing.
Two KCA 1 t/d cyanide CIP pilot plants are now operating in Bolivia and Peru — complete with ore crushing, grinding, leach tanks, and carbon stripping. Replicable for any client project.
Al Hajar (Saudi Arabia): Pilot heap leach with Model 15 ADR — KCA designed, constructed, and operated under contract to government organizations. Boulder Creek (Nevada): 3,000-tonne pilot that became Dee Mine. South Africa: Container-mounted column-cell pilot flotation for copper.
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