Carbon Inventory Management in a Carbon-in-Leach Circuit

Six C2 carbon concentration meters installed in PNG’s Hidden Valley Gold and Silver Mine have improved carbon management in the mine’s CIL circuit and significantly optimised metal recovery.

  • Installation of six carbon concentration meters (C2 meters) in the Hidden Valley mine has improved carbon management in the mine’s CIL circuit.
  • The C2 meters are explicitly designed to measure and provide continuous online monitoring of the carbon concentration in the slurry tanks. 
  • The mine’s C2 meters have mitigated sources of error and provide an accurate and repeatable real-time estimate of total carbon inventory.
Hidden Valley Mine's C2 meters use the principle of ultrasonic attenuation to determine the carbon concentration in CIL tanks in real-time. The accurate measurement of this variable for managing carbon inventory is a critical parameter in the efficient operation of the CIL circuit.

As this paper shows, integrating accurate high-frequency carbon  concentration readings into an automated carbon inventory management system can have significant benefits. These include the following:
  • Maintaining a consistent carbon profile in the CIL circuit and enabling the implementation of an efficient carbon movement strategy
  • Effective management of events such as carbon transfer to the CIL circuit, carbon transfer between tanks and carbon recirculation between the CIL circuit and elution
  • Preventing over- or under-transferring of carbon from one tank to the other
  • Determining if there is carbon leakage or short circuiting between tanks
  • Compensating for variability in equipment performance
  • Maintaining a consistency in the process, independent of operator’s experiences
  • Automatically detecting if carbon transfer pumps are not functioning properly.

By installing the C2 meters the mine has experienced a significant reduction in soluble gold and silver losses to the CIL tails. It’s estimated that, over a 12-month period, the improvement to the bottom line due to reduced gold losses is around AU$5 million.

Related Resources

C2 Meter

C2 Meter

C2 Meter improves gold recovery by automating carbon measurement and control with easy set-up and calibration.

Read More
Innovation

Innovation

At Molycop, we see innovation as a way to find solutions to some of the mining industry’s greatest challenges. We aim to improve on today so we can deliver better for tomorrow.

Read More
Leaching

Leaching

Improve mineral processing with Molycop’s range of instrumentation and advanced process control solutions.

Read More
Products

Products

With our extensive range of products, deep industry knowledge and expertise, Molycop is a trusted partner to mining operations globally; and rail and manufacturing industries across Australia.

Read More

Cookie Settings

We use cookies, including third party cookies, for operational purposes, statistical analyses, to personalize your experience, provide you with targeted content tailored to your interests and to analyze the performance of our advertising campaigns.

To find out more about the types of cookies, as well as who sends them on our website, please visit our dedicated guide to managing cookies.