What Actually Determines the Price
There is no single price for a gold plant, and any supplier who gives you one without asking about your ore is selling you a catalogue item rather than a solution. Two operations at identical tonnage can differ by a factor of three in capital cost, because the plant is designed around the ore, not around the tonnes.
Four questions set the number before anything else does.
- Is the gold free-milling or refractory? Free gold liberated by grinding can be recovered by gravity alone. Gold locked in sulphides needs leaching, and if it is genuinely refractory it needs pre-treatment, which changes the plant category entirely
- How hard is the ore? Comminution is the largest energy consumer and the largest single equipment cost. A high Bond Work Index means a bigger mill and a bigger motor for the same tonnage
- What grind size do you need? Finer grinding lifts recovery and costs disproportionately more in both capital and power
- Where is the site? Grid power or diesel, water availability, road access and distance from Dar es Salaam all move the total materially
Without test work on a representative sample, any capital figure is a guess. A Bond Work Index determination and a diagnostic leach on a few tens of kilograms of ore costs a small fraction of the plant and is the difference between a plant that meets nameplate and one that never does.
Indicative Capital Bands
The ranges below are order-of-magnitude planning figures for equipment supply, expressed in US dollars, for free-milling ore. They exclude freight, duty, civil works, power generation, tailings facilities and working capital, all of which are covered further down. They are shown to help you decide which conversation to have, not to be used as a budget.
Gravity-only plant, 10 to 30 tonnes per day
Jaw crusher, small ball mill, cyclone, centrifugal concentrator and shaking table. Suitable for alluvial gold and for free-milling hard rock with good liberation at a coarse grind. This is the mercury-free route that most small operations should be on. Indicatively in the region of USD 60,000 to 200,000 for the equipment, with the spread driven mostly by mill size and whether the circuit is new or refurbished.
Gravity plus CIL, 50 tonnes per day
The gravity circuit above, followed by a leach and adsorption train, elution and electrowinning, and a small laboratory. This is where recovery moves from perhaps 60 to 80 percent on gravity alone to 88 to 95 percent on suitable ore. Indicatively USD 400,000 to 900,000 for equipment. The leach section, the elution plant and the reagent and safety infrastructure account for most of the step up.
CIL plant, 100 tonnes per day and above
A full modular plant with larger comminution, a longer tank train, thickening and water recycling. Indicatively USD 800,000 to 2,000,000 and upwards for equipment. Above this scale the project stops being an equipment purchase and becomes a capital project with engineering, procurement and construction management attached.
The Costs That Sit Outside the Equipment Price
- Freight, duty and inland transport. Commonly 25 to 45 percent on top of an FOB equipment price for a Lake Victoria Goldfields site. Treat this as a line item, not a rounding allowance
- Civil works. Level compacted pad, concrete plinths, drainage. Modest for a skid-mounted modular plant, substantial for a built-in-place circuit
- Power. If the site is off-grid, a generator sized with headroom for mill starting current is a significant purchase in its own right, and diesel then dominates operating cost
- Water. A borehole, pump, storage and a return-water circuit. In water-constrained districts this can determine whether the site works at all
- Tailings. A properly engineered and permitted storage facility. Frequently underestimated, and the item most likely to stop a project on environmental grounds
- Permits and compliance. Environmental approval, cyanide handling and storage requirements where a leach circuit is used, and the associated monitoring
- Working capital. Reagents, grinding media, wear parts, fuel and payroll from commissioning until first revenue. Plants have stalled at 90 percent complete for want of this
Operating Cost: The Number That Decides Viability
Capital cost determines whether you can start. Operating cost per tonne determines whether you should. For small hard-rock gold plants in Tanzania the dominant line items are, in rough order:
- Power. Grinding is the biggest consumer by a wide margin. On diesel generation this is often the single largest operating cost in the business
- Grinding media and liners. Media consumption runs roughly 0.3 to 1.2 kg per tonne depending on ore abrasiveness
- Reagents. Cyanide, lime, activated carbon and flocculant where a leach circuit is in use
- Labour. Operators, maintenance, laboratory and security
- Maintenance and spares. Predictable if planned, ruinous if run to failure
Model this per tonne and per recovered ounce before committing capital. A plant that is cheap to build and expensive to run is a worse investment than the reverse, because the operating cost is paid every single day for the life of the mine.
Modular or Built in Place
For most operations under about 200 tonnes per day in Tanzania, modular wins. The plant arrives largely assembled and pre-tested, commissions in three to ten weeks rather than six months or more, needs minimal civil works, and can be relocated if the orebody turns out smaller than hoped. That last point is genuine capital protection on a deposit that has not been fully drilled.
Built in place makes sense at larger scale, where the engineering effort is justified by throughput and where the operation is certain to stay put for a decade.
A Realistic Sequence
- Test work first. Bond Work Index, gravity recoverable gold, diagnostic leach and a comminution assessment on a representative sample
- Flowsheet from the results, not from a brochure. The test work tells you whether gravity alone is enough
- Size the plant to the resource, not to ambition. An oversized plant starves and never reaches nameplate economics
- Price landed, with civils, power and water included
- Model operating cost per tonne before signing
- Plan commissioning and operator training as part of the purchase
Regions We Serve
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the minimum viable size for a gold plant?
Below roughly 20 to 30 tonnes per day, a full leach circuit rarely pays for itself and gravity recovery alone is usually the better economic answer. Many small Tanzanian operations are better served by a good gravity plant plus a toll arrangement for concentrate than by building a leach circuit they cannot keep supplied or staffed.
How long from order to first gold?
For a modular plant with equipment in stock, plan on three to six months from order to first pour once manufacturing, shipping, clearance, site works and commissioning are all counted. Made-to-order plant adds manufacturing lead time. The schedule risk is rarely the plant itself, it is the site works and power not being ready when the containers arrive.
Can I buy a used gold plant?
Yes, and it can be good value, but inspect it against your ore rather than against its history. A plant that performed well on soft oxide ore may be badly undersized for hard sulphide ore at the same tonnage. Check mill liner and shell condition, motor ratings against your supply voltage and frequency, and whether critical spares are still manufactured.
Do I need a cyanide permit in Tanzania?
Cyanide use in gold processing is permitted but regulated, with requirements covering storage, containment, monitoring and emergency response administered through the environmental and mining authorities. Requirements change, so obtain current legal advice before you procure a leach circuit rather than after.