It is natural and understandable that when times are hard and mineral prices are low, mines and miners pull in their horns and cut “non-essentials” like process and recovery testing.
BAD MOVE.
Hard times and low prices are in fact a very good reason to increase routine testing, or at least to conduct a mineral testing program to make sure that every possible dollar is being put in the bank. Blithely and unquestioningly following the same old process and methods that worked in the good days may result in a crash in darker times, a crash that could be avoided at relatively negligible cost.
It’s easy to get fat in the good times; it’s the bad times where extra attention is needed, and extra attention comes from testing and knowing exactly what to tweak and where to cut back in the recovery process.
Our related article, The gold price is good, shows that actually the gold price is not all bad news, but bad times are not restricted to poor prices. Our world is in crisis, floods and freezing in Europe, fires raging on other continents and widespread drought throughout Africa. Drought in turn means reduced hydro-power and reduced water availability.
Not only can mineral and gold testing optimise the recovery and producer-cost profiles of an ore, but it can also indicate areas of possible power and water saving. Without the knowledge afforded by testing, mines are at the mercy of the markets and climatic conditions.
At Peacocke & Simpson, we pride ourselves in placing value on the importance of routine output testing, as well as being committed to the environment and a sustainable future. We so believe in the power of routine testing in keeping a processing plant both profitable and operational, that we offer discounts to clients who run testwork on ore feeds or outputs within a year of the last testwork for said plant (terms and conditions obviously apply).
If you would like to know more, please get in touch with us.
