The advantages of the replate system are few, but significant:
- It greatly reduces the amount of slag produced. Since less slag is produced, the manhours and equipment required to handle the slag are also reduced.
- Gold losses to slag are proportionally reduced.
- Steel wool costs are reduced.
- Steel wool replacement is done twice per year instead of once or twice per week.
- Manhours spent in the gold room can be minimized, which lessens security risks and required operators’ time.
- The amount of gold bearing material actually handled is reduced, which has positive capital, equipment use, operating costs and security implications .
- The system is inexpensive to install. All that is required is one or two (depending on size) extra replating cells with rectifiers, cathodes and a small additional floor space.
Overall the greatest advantages are in the slag and security areas. At Ortiz, there are people in the secured gold room for a total of only three hours per week. The rest of the time the strip solution is pumped into the room, it circulates through the tanks, then back out without attention. The pumps are located outside the room as are the rectifiers. The gold room is unlocked and occupied only twice per week. It takes one hour to switch the baskets from the primary to the replate cells (and visa versa) then two hours to scrape. Our security official needs to concentrate on the gold room only during these three hours (which are recorded on film by several cameras). When there are employees in direct contact with the gold for only 3 hours per week, the guards can be much more attentive.
The slag problem is also significant. Ortiz has no slag to handle and Mesquite has little. Since Ortiz has started the replating system the volume of material shipped weekly has dropped to 2-4 one gallon containers, with resultant reductions in personnel costs, operating costs and shipping costs.
