How Gold Refining is Evolving in Canada

Canada’s gold refining industry has developed to keep up with changing industry requirements and environmental regulations.

• To lessen its influence on the environment, Canada’s gold refining industry is rapidly implementing environmentally sound procedures.
• The need of sourcing gold from ethical and environmentally responsible mines is being increasingly stressed by refineries.
• Refineries are investing in cutting-edge technologies like ion exchange, solvent extraction, and electrolytic refining.

How Emerging Technologies are Revolutionizing the Gold Refining Process

Modern mining operations employ cutting-edge technology to increase productivity, enhance safety, and reduce environmental consequences, including greenhouse gas emissions.

• Stakeholders can better comprehend potential effects by viewing digital simulations of mining operations created with 3-D printing and virtual reality techniques.
• Data management systems help to hold businesses in a better way.
• Optimizing gold and platinum group metal laboratory procedures is the goal of a fully automated fire assay (FIFA) system. Robotics now makes it possible to carry out these duties autonomously, improving the reliability and accuracy of data collection. Previously, these tasks belonged to assayers, who would have been exposed to heat and lead fumes.
• The automated pulverizers significantly increase worker health and safety since they spare them from the dust, noise, and heavy lifting traditionally associated with manual mills. It has the capacity to process more than 3600 samples each day.
• Canada’s Thunder Bay has an automated crushing system for mining samples. Each day, 1200 samples can be processed at this facility. This pioneering automated crushing system for Accurassay, the first of its type in Canada, will pave the way for the introduction of a new standard for quality, productivity, and safety in the sample preparation sector of mining and mineral laboratories.

Challenges that Lie Ahead with Automation 

• First is optimizing the workforce with skills. The need for competitive skills may increase, making it more difficult for those living nearby to take advantage of direct job possibilities. Opportunities for procurement will vary as the workforce does. Even if several manual processes have been automated, there is still an increasing demand for knowledgeable operators and technicians to manage and maintain automated systems.

• A higher danger of cyberattacks and data breaches comes along with more automation. For the sake of protecting their automated systems, data, and intellectual property, gold refineries must make significant investments in cybersecurity. For these risks to be reduced, it is essential to implement secure network infrastructure, update software and firmware often, and train staff on cybersecurity best practices.