The Merrill Crowe was never the answer. It was part of the puzzle. The whole mining process is one giant system and so the system is only as fast as the slowest part. If you only have on front loader to pile dirt on the heap then that's as fast as you can move even if you have a massive M/C.
SO Blast>Scoop>Jawcrush/sift for ideal size for heap so no channeling>Spray cyanide>recovery pond>MC>Smelt
I'm not the expert, but have been researching to understand this. This is my understanding and I could very well be wrong. So I'm open to correction.
Essentially, to mine they need to blast, stack the ore on the pad, leach it with cyanide to a pond, move the material from the pond through the MC, and then remove the filter full of precip for pouring of gold.
Right now, they have 250lb of precip ready to pour gold (numerous filters). They haven't poured it yet, because depending on the using the exact right process means that they could recover a lot less then if they do it right. they have been dialing it in to make sure it is done right and so they maximize their precious metal extraction (see link: https://www.911metallurgist.com/blog/operate-a-merrill-crowe-precipitation-process). This is happening this week. So we'll get a nice revenue announcement next.
Now, to ramp up to 10k a day - they need to first get more material on the pads as fast as possible. They need the jaw crusher to do this, so that as they blast more, they can put more material on the pads faster. (Crush the ore for moving to the pads).
Once they are able to put enough material on the pads to ramp up to 10k a day (i.e. once the jaw crusher is running) then they can increase flow of cyanide to the material on the pads and increase the flow through the MC( material from the pregnant pond into the MC). to increase the flow to the MC, they need more filters in the MC because they will have to start replacing the filters daily. My understanding is that 4 filters and replacing 1 a day should do it for 10k a day. (but could be wrong)
So essentially the jaw crusher is a critical piece and the filters are a critical piece (seen in the PR). When they have these, they can then work to increase the flow through the MC as they increase the ability to stack ore quickly and increase the replacement of filters filled with gold.
I would say that this is all under a plan, however the jaw crusher got delayed at the other mine (probably legally) and now is clear to move. They are ramping up as they bring in revenue. I believe this is all planned so that it is done correctly. I expect them to meet the timeline by their estimates. However, there is a good chance they will deliver sooner.
As for the high grade I would not run it from the start either. Fine tune the system first. Don't burn your best player at practice save him for game day. Once everything is verified running the way it should then add high grade.
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