Evaluación de la recuperación de oro aluvial por métodos gravimétricos (knelson y mesa vibratoria) proveniente del sector Caluguro, El Oro

Abstract

Abstract: The objective of this study was to apply gravimetric methods to recover alluvial gold from the Caluguro sector of El Oro Province, Ecuador. The methods used were a Knelson centrifugal concentrator, a shaking table, and a combination of processes to evaluate the performance obtained from both the methods individually and in combination. For the investigation, systematic sampling of gold-bearing material was carried out to produce a polished section of heavy sediments. Analytical techniques such as XRD and XRF were used to determine the mineralogy and chemical composition of the material in the study area. Regarding the shaking table and Knelson tests, two cases were proposed with different operating conditions, for which the best performance was obtained in case 2, both with the shaking table and Knelson. For the Knelson test, a 99.51% yield was obtained, using 50 Gs of centrifugal force and 1 psi of water pressure. Meanwhile, for the vibrating table, a 56.16% yield was achieved; a 7 mm amplitude, 120 impacts/minute, and a 6° longitudinal and 3° transverse inclination were used, with a flow rate of 0.17 L/s. Finally, the process combination was sequential using the variables from Case 2, Knelson and vibrating table. A pre-concentration of the vibrating table was performed, and the vibrating table concentrate was reconcentrated in the Knelson centrifugal concentrator, thus obtaining a 99.84% yield.