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Small and medium-scale gold miners last week benefitted from training and demonstration exercises on the flotation method for recovery of very fine particles of gold which escape other processing systems.
The training was organized by the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), and Mr. Mr. Khiratt Hussain, a Guyanese metallurgist living and working in Canada was the main resource person.
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Hussain worked closely with Ms. Dianne McDonald, Senior Mineral Processing Engineer II and other staffers of the GGMC.
They all said that the flotation method was necessary for continued High-yield gold mining, given the depletion of coarse gold and other easily accessible forms of the metal which is generally taking place.
The recovery method is one of several being promoted by the GGMC.
The GGMC recently organized a similar seminar on the gravity concentration method and is also working on the use of cyanide leaching as another at a laboratory at Linden..
Hussain said that the flotation method could be regarded as the final cleanup for locating gold which may have escaped other processes, such as the popularly used sluice box.
“This picks up very fine gold that you would otherwise lose,” he said, while doing a demonstration at the Guyana Girl Guides Pavilion in Georgetown last week.
In this method, chemicals are applied to the tailings from the sluice box in a watery solution and the chemicals attach themselves to the gold grains in the solution and then float with them to the surface from where they can be recovered.
Hussain said that the method was very efficient at optimising gold recovery from sand and other minerals.
Mrs. McDonald said that the GGMC was impressed with the system and will be continuing further pilot studies to arrive at better determinations as to its usefulness and suitability for transfer to small and medium-scale miners.
