Why is my CIL plant losing gold in the tailings?

High gold losses are often caused by carbon fines escaping the circuit. Excessive agitator speed can break activated carbon into fine particles that pass through interstage screens and carry gold into the tailings.

Does adding more cyanide improve gold recovery?

Not always. If the root cause is poor agitation or carbon loss, increasing cyanide dosage may raise operating costs without significantly improving recovery.

Why does activated carbon break down inside CIL tanks?

High-speed impellers create excessive shear forces that continuously impact activated carbon, causing it to fracture into fine particles that are difficult to recover.

What problems occur when the agitator speed is too low?

If agitation is insufficient, heavy solids settle on the tank floor, creating dead zones, reducing effective tank volume, and allowing slurry to short-circuit through the tank.

How does a double impeller agitation tank improve CIL performance?

A double impeller design creates a large circulation loop that keeps solids suspended while operating at lower rotational speed. This minimizes carbon attrition, improves slurry mixing, reduces dead zones, and increases gold recovery.

Can reducing agitator speed also reduce power consumption?

Yes. Efficient hydraulic design allows the tank to maintain proper suspension with lower impeller speed, reducing motor power consumption while maintaining effective mixing.

Stop Losing Gold in Your CIL Plant Tailings

You spend massive money crushing and grinding gold ore. You buy expensive cyanide. You buy top grade activated carbon. Then you test the tailings. The gold grade in the waste is just way too high.

Whether the ore comes from a fresh underground deposit or a weathered open-pit operation, the objective remains the same: reduce the rock to the right particle size while maintaining throughput, controlling operating costs, and protecting downstream circuits.

You are throwing money away every hour. What is actually going wrong.

Alot of plant managers blame the chemicals. They add more cyanide. They pump in more oxygen. But the real thief is mechanical.

The Blender Effect in Your Tanks

Look at your CIL tanks. The agitator inside is probably killing your profit.

If the impeller spins too fast it acts like a giant blender. It hits the activated carbon hard and breaks it into tiny dust. These carbon fines are loaded with your gold. But they are way too small for the inter-tank screens to catch. So they just wash straight out into the tailings dam.

But if you slow down a normal agitator you get a different nightmare. The heavy sand settles at the bottom. You get massive dead zones. The ore never touches the cyanide. The tank volume shrinks and the slurry just short circuits right through.

So you have a choice. Break the carbon or bury the tank in sand. Both cost you big money.

How ZENITH Solves the Agitation Problem

We see this mess all the time at ZENITH. We designed our CIL agitation tanks exactly to stop this problem. We dont use standard flat impellers.

ZENITH uses a special double impeller design. The blades are pitched at a specific angle. They push the heavy slurry straight down to the tank floor. Then the flow sweeps up along the tank walls. This creates a massive slow circulation loop.

It keeps all the heavy solids perfectly suspended. But the rotation speed is much lower than normal tanks. Low speed means low shear force. The impeller blades do not smash the carbon. Your activated carbon stays in big strong pieces. The screens catch it easily.

Your gold stays in the plant instead of going to the waste dump. Plus a slower motor uses less electricity.

The Real Numbers

Here is what happens when you swap a standard agitator for a ZENITH double impeller tank.

Plant Issue	Standard Agitation Tank	ZENITH Double Impeller Tank
Carbon Breakdown Rate	High. Fast impeller grinds carbon into fine dust.	Very Low. Slow speed protects carbon integrity.
Tank Dead Zones	Common at the bottom corners. Sand builds up fast.	Zero. Downward flow sweeps the whole floor clean.
Gold Loss to Tailings	High due to escaping gold loaded carbon dust.	Minimized. Screens catch the intact carbon pieces.
Power Draw	High. Needs fast motor to keep sand from sinking.	Low. Profile blades use fluid dynamics to lift sand.

Dont let bad mechanical design steal your gold. Contact a ZENITH engineer today. We will look at your slurry density and tank sizes. We can fix your CIL circuit so you keep the gold you worked so hard to mine.

Stop Losing Gold in Your CIL Plant Tailings

The Blender Effect in Your Tanks

How ZENITH Solves the Agitation Problem

The Real Numbers

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