As we near the halfway point of 2022, most major global economies are starting on an inflationary cycle which is putting pressure on operating costs and potentially the return on your capital investments. When it comes to capital investments, if the inflation mostly hits the inputs to be used in a project, while the price of the finished good (or commodity) remains relatively fixed, Return on Investment, ROI, will go down. This is an unavoidable fact and something we haven’t had to worry about too much in the last decade or so.
Much debate currently centres on whether this is a spike or a long-term trend, and time may only be the determinant. Regardless governments are starting to react by increasing cash rates and it appears the days of cheap capital may be behind us.
In this environment of increasing operating and borrowing costs, solutions that offer competitive capital costs and strong ROI through tangible operating cost reductions are a must.
Mineral Process Control’s PAL1000 gold assaying technology is arguably the only assaying technology on the market that provide this.
With a capital cost of under AUD 90k and a cost-saving of up to AUD1.60* per sample over comparable methods, such as fire assay and photon, PAL1000 provides the users with a rapid return on their investment and tangible ongoing operational savings.
A customer’s ROI will depend on the number of samples processed, however as each machine typically processes 52 samples at an average of 1.5-hour per cycle, impressive ROI can easily be achieved.
For example, for a customer running a PAL1000 for 8 hours a day, the ROI is 96%, whereas if they were to operate for 12 hours per day the ROI is 194%!
It has been estimated that operating a single PAL unit for 24 hours a day can save you close to $500k in operating costs.
But the savings don’t necessarily end there, as one of our customers reported that they have been able to reduce the size of their mining mobile plant due to the efficiencies that their PAL systems unlocked. Simply, the fast turnaround on their grade control samples, producing almost real-time results, allowed for quicker decision making, with the flow-on effect of reducing the idle time of their fleet. Less idle time resulted in a reduction in the number of trucks required per shift, significantly reducing their fleet costs. A PAL1000 system can be easily installed within an existing mine site laboratory, reducing turnaround due to sending samples offsite for assaying.
PAL 1000 also shines above methods, as it is the only high-rate commercially available gold assaying method that is predictive of expected recoveries from Carbon-in-Pulp gold recovery plants, so it provides a better estimate of the economics than other assay techniques. When using fire assay, photon or acid digest, you will still need to do some metallurgical test work employing cyanide to see how much the plant will recover, which involves duplication. Having this data available prior to processing through the plant is critical for the metallurgist to understand the grade and recovery profiles of the ore body. Also, having this data available in a quick time has the potential to allow the miner to make decisions on ore selection to deliver expected cash flows.
PAL1000 is increasingly being updated by global gold miners who require, fast, reliable, repeatable and simple assaying. Close to 80 units have been supplied with more to be adopted in the coming months. Best of all you own an asset with next to no maintenance costs which can be easily maintained by your onsite maintenance team – a must when operating remotely.
PAL1000 ticks a lot of boxes when it comes to a gold assaying technology that reduces capital and operating costs. This is especially important in a time of inflating costs and potentially tougher credit conditions. Contact the MPC team to discuss how a PAL1000 assaying system can transform your exploration, mining and processing costs and timelines.
Mineral Process Control
30 Furniss Drive Landsdale WA 6065, info@mpcwa.com, +61 8 9303 2334
www.mpcwa.com
* based on supplied data
