Going for the gold

In mid-December 2009, FLSmidth acquired Utah-based Summit Valley Equipment & Engineering (SVEE) to continue building on its experience in precious metals recovery. SVEE designs and fabricates modular plants and equipment used for the extraction of gold and silver. With gold prices rallying 24% during 2009 and witnessing the climbing prices over the last few months, Summit Valley becomes a strategic investment for carrying FLSmidth forward in the precious minerals sector.

“SVEE adds unique refining expertise to our existing minerals business thereby increasing our offerings to the minerals processing industries and providing a more complete flow sheet in gold and silver extraction,” Group CEO Jørgen Huno Rasmussen comments.

SVEE was founded in 1990 with the vision of supplying competitive quality equipment and engineering services to the metallurgical and chemical industries. SVEE delivered on that proposition and today leads the world in gold electrolysis and mercury vacuum distillation. Products and capabilities include refineries, ADR (Carbon Adsorption, Desorption & Recovery) Plant solutions and the industry’s highest capacity electrowinning cell used in precious metals recovery. Electrowinning is the process used to capture the metal on a cathode by means of electrolyzing the ore which has been dissolved into an aqueous solution during preprocessing.

SVEE offers six sizes of the electrowinning cells which are constructed of 304 stainless steel and lined with polypropylene in the working area. Because of their sturdy and durable construction, they require less maintenance compared to the competition’s cells and combined with the higher efficiencies, SVEE cells cost much less to operate over the life of the plant. SVEE is also the world leader in electrowinning and mercury retorting of precious metals.

SVEE specialty equipment includes

• Electrowinning cells
• Kilns, dryers and calciners
• Mercury retorts and condensing systems
• Mercury scrubbers and absorbers
• Solution heating and heat recovery packages
• Gold adsorption and recovery systems
• Power generation, distribution and supplies
• Material delivery systems
• Fluorescent lamp recycling systems

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