San Albino Plant

Description

San Albino production was designed with processing flexibility in mind at 500MTPD. Design and Construction included focus on minimizing cost and time required for increasing to 1000MTPD. Processing consists of crushing, milling, gravity separation, Carbon In Leach (CIL) and filter pressing the tails for dry stacking.

San Albino Gold recoveries are generated by two streams, the first is Gravity separation utilizing a Knelson concentrator followed by batch reactions through the Consep Acacia. The second stream of recovery is the CIL circuit and utilizing a Zadra circuit. Year-To-Date the recoveries from these two streams are split 85% from carbon stripping and 15% from the gravity separation.

Following the CIL process, an intense detox system reduces hazardous concerns with continuous monitoring of all components with the assistance of the in-house lab. This process assures we maintain discharge below Article 55 standards.

The last processing step is a first for Nicaragua, dry tails stacking. To accomplish the required moisture content, a plate and frame filter press is being utilized. The San Albino project is a zero discharge process and recycles all process water through additional remediation steps to reduce potential environmental impact and minimize the dependance on local water supplies.

Outlook

Production began in Q2 of 2021, with commerical production declared in Q3. Annual capability for current design is 180,000 tonnes per year.

San Albino achieved steady state operation in late Q4 and has demonstrated operating at faceplate design of 500MTPD. San Albino is prepared to  double capacity to 1000MTPD, requiring minimal capital investment as most of the design/construction was accomplished when the process plant was completed in Q1 of 2021. Key components required for scaling to 1000 tonnes per day consist of: Gravity separator, CIL circuit and dry tails stacking equipment.

In addition to doubling capacity and maintaining steady state operations, the focus remains on any and all ways of optimizing overall recovery in a Safe and Environmentally conscious environment.