Modern Mining September 2024

The Tanzanian gold mining industry plays a vital role in bolstering the country’s position as a top gold producer in Africa.

VEGA sensors are typically straightforward to install and configure, making them user friendly for operators.

Shinyanga region starts underground, where the gold-rich ore is extracted. After the extraction process, the ore is loaded onto trucks and transported to the surface for processing. Once at the surface, the ore is sent to a processing plant. Here, various processes such as crushing, grinding, gravity concentration, and flotation are used. The extracted ore is first crushed into smaller pieces and then ground into a fine powder. This process increases the surface area of the ore, making it easier to extract the gold. The ground ore is mixed with water and chemicals, creating a slurry during a process referred to as “thickening”. Air is then bubbled through the slurry, and the gold particles attach to the bubbles and float to the surface as a froth. This froth is collected as it contains the gold concentrate. The gold concentrate obtained from the flotation process typically contains impurities. To refine the gold, the concentrate is further processed to produce gold doré bars. The impurities are removed through processes such as smelting and refining. The resulting product is a gold doré bar with a high gold content, something that the region is known for. The plot thickens Thickening is a procedure that involves the separation of a slurry, or a mixture of solids and liquids, into a concentrated slurry that retains most of the solid particles and an overflow consisting of largely clear water. Gravitational force serves as the primary mechanism for this separation, as the variations in

VEGA is a trusted partner in the pursuit of operational efficiency and accuracy in liquid-level management for industrial applications.

phase densities compel the solids and liquids to separate. In most mining operations, sedimentation-based thickening is employed for both product and tailings streams to reclaim water, which is subsequently recycled within the process. As the rake arms rotate or move through the settled solids, they help in the separation of solid particles from the liquid in the slurry. The motion of the rake arms assists in pushing the settled solids towards the centre of the tank, where they are collected

SEPTEMBER 2024 | www.modernminingmagazine.co.za  MODERN MINING  25