Australian consortium aims to revolutionize gold plant data analysis

[caption id="attachment_1003742865" align="alignnone" width="550"] The OLGA (OnLine Gold Analyser) system was developed by CSIRO and is being commercialized by Gekko Systems. Credit: Gekko Systems[/caption] Gekko Systems is part of a consortium that has received funding from the METS Ignited Growth Centre, in Australia, to commercialize a solution for collection and analyzing gold plant data in real time. The project aims to revolutionize the industry’s ability to measure circuit inventory and recovery in real time, move it into the digital world and provide the opportunity for full automation. Other participants include Gold Fields, Orway IQ, CSIRO and Curtain University. The METS Ignited funding will assist in the development of a system to collect and analyze real-time gold reconciliations and automate gold processing plants by providing the technology, software, skills and expertise to the miners as an integrated package. In a world first, the project draws together a range of technologies and skill sets that are the first step to truly understanding what is happening in a gold production plant in real time, and will eventually lead to a fully autonomous gold plant. The installation and testing of the combined technologies – including the Carbon Scout and OLGA (OnLine Gold Analyser) technologies available from Gekko – will take place at Gold Fields' Gruyere gold mine, in Western Australia; the mine poured its first gold in 2019. “The METS Ignited project is looking to integrate multiple technologies to achieve a step change in the automation and optimization of gold processing,” said Matt Dixon, Gold Fields' processing projects coordinator. “Recent innovations by CSIRO and Curtin University, in partnership with Gekko Systems are now making the potential to monitor gold in real time a reality. Combining the OLGA (OnLine Gold Analyser) and Carbon Scout with newly developed data capture and analytics technologies, aims to provide a step change to how we measure, monitor and optimize gold recovery.” The project will address current difficulties in accounting for gold during production, lag times in assessing data and adapting procedures to maximize production from the data provided and the safety around a number of those procedures. The ultimate aim is to have gold process and recovery data being analyzed within minutes rather than days from anywhere in the world and for production to be adapted to reflect this data. This round of METS Ignited collaborative funding is focused on analytics, automation and robotics in the mining industry with projects expected to have a global impact and to provide substantial benefits to the Australian METS sector. METS Ignited is an industry-led, government funded organization that supports the Australian mining equipment, technology and services sector. The project will share $6 million in funding announced earlier this month with three other collaborative projects. For more information, visit www.metsignited.org.