Foundations for Mining is a partner with CRED and is very grateful for the relationship. We are concerned with creation care, and in particular the uncontrolled use of mercury by artisanal and small-scale gold miners in ecologically sensitive areas of the Earth.
Over the past few months, F4M has been involved in the development of a new version of the concentrator called the Gold Kacha (GK). This is a mechanised piece of equipment which replaces the manual sluicing of crushed gold ores or mine dumps containing gold particles. Previously, the manual system included the use of mercury, which is toxic and very harmful to both those using it, and to the environment and communities in which it is ‘dumped’ as waste. The GK removes the need to use any mercury at all, so improving the health of miners, their families, anyone drinking from water sources nearby, and the earth in which the communities grow their crops. The new smaller, cheaper version, the Gold Kacha mini (miniGK) has now been tested in Harare and has received a ‘thumbs up’ from its developer, Kevin Woods from Appropriate Process Technology.
It is the red cylinder shown in the picture and is about the size of a vacuum cleaner, easily portable, rugged, and cheap. Here it shown in front of a small crusher (yellow) which pulverizes the rocks mined from underground into a powder which is then mixed with water and flows as a slurry down the yellow pipe.
Inside the red drum is a cylinder which rotates at a high-speed separating the heavier gold particles from the waste rock particles. The waste slurry flows out the top over a weir and into a pond from where the water can be recycled. After a few minutes the spinning stops and the ribs of the cylinder are washed, releasing the gold trapped within them. The enriched slurry is flushed out through a central spout into a bucket for further concentrating in sluice boxes (not shown).
A more comprehensive system allowing gold particles to be recovered without using mercury has now been bought and delivered to Kenya and will be trialled on a gold mine in the next weeks. CRED have graciously raised funds for the system to be taken to surrounding gold mining areas to demonstrate its efficiency and ease of operation. It is hoped that either mining entrepreneurs or small groups of miners will purchase a miniGK for their own use, as the beginning of the end of mercury!