Production of 180,000 tons of concentrate from 1.6m tons of ore is just above 50% recovery. No metallurgist worth his salt would accept that recovery. I think you are taking figures from a proposal to use dense media separation as a first stage. This could be used for a start-up while the plant was built, but tails would be kept for further processing when the flotation unit was completed. This would probably require a finer grind and therefore more grinding mills to complete the recovery. That is a not uncommon start-up installation, but the first tails would be processed through the flotation section when it was built to ensure best recovery of the valuable metal.
ESS Price at posting:
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