What Apex needs to learn is that gold in the plant is in...

What Apex needs to learn is that gold in the plant is in circuit. Generally, the longer the gold bearing ore remains in circuit, the better the recovery. The better the % recovery, the more gold produced for the same expense.

Every time Apex drains a tank looking for gold, the real effect is that the gold spends less time in the circuit giving the impression that gold has been "recovered" from the circuit. Next time you fill the tank up with the same amount of gold bearing ore you just took from the tank, it appears as though gold has been "lost" in the circuit. If you don't fill the tank up again, the process doesn't work and you continue to send a greater % of gold to tails. The %gold recovery drops, reagent consumption increases and the costs of production go up.

Credit to MA for having a go and being keen to get his hands dirty, but perhaps he should rely on the people who know how the plant works to make it work at it's optimum. Instead of bean-counting the gold in the circuit, stop loosing the gold from the circuit to tails.