The Six Stages of a Gold Plant Project
Building a gold processing plant is a major capital project. Done in the right order, each stage de-risks the next. Here is the sequence Xinhai follows.
1. Ore Testwork
Everything starts in the laboratory. Ore characterisation, element analysis and recovery testwork (gravity, flotation, leaching) fix the flowsheet before any design work. A plant designed without testwork is a plant designed on guesswork.
2. Flowsheet & Plant Design
From the test results, the flowsheet is fixed and the plant is designed — crushing, milling, recovery and tailings. Xinhai's design institute works to international standards including JORC, NI 43-101 and VALMIN, and holds a Class B qualification in China's metallurgical industry.
3. Equipment Manufacturing & Supply
The equipment is manufactured and supplied. Xinhai builds more than 1,000 equipment types across three manufacturing bases totalling about 110,000 m² — from crushers and ball mills to flotation cells and leaching tanks.
4. Construction
Civil works, steel structure, equipment installation and piping are carried out as one scope. A single contractor for construction avoids the coordination gaps between separate vendors.
5. Commissioning
Equipment is run in, the flowsheet is tuned, and the plant is brought up to production. Commissioning is where the design assumptions meet the real ore.
6. Operation (Optional)
Xinhai can operate the plant after handover — production, maintenance, safety and environmental management — and support expansion later.
Why One Partner Helps
When testwork, design, equipment, construction and operation sit with one accountable partner, each stage informs the next, and there is a single point of responsibility. We have delivered gold plants up to 15,000 t/d this way, including a 4,000 t/d gold CIP plant in Kyrgyzstan and gold projects in Ghana and Guinea.