The Minataur~(MT) gold refining process can, with some variants, be used to produce 99,99 or 99,999 percent gold from all forms of gold arisings from metallurgical plants (be they the most sophisticated Adsorption-in-Pulp or the simplest gravity type) at a cost that is less than the cost of producing crude dore bullion. The process is cost competitive and offers several techno-economic advantages relative to the state of the art Wohwill electrorefining and Inco solvent extraction processes. It is also an improvement on fractional precipitation processes practised at some scrap refining operations. Small and large scale Minataur~(TM) plants are viable and can produce marketable bars of pure gold in a simple "cold" unit operation on the mine site. The technology also offers an cost effective way of avoiding highly toxic mercury vapour emissions that threaten the health of artisanal miners and add to the costs of gold recovery in North America. No new gold mine should be without a Minataur~(TM) refinery and most existing smelt houses can be cost effectively replaced with the technology. The implication of this development is that the role of central refining plants should be reconsidered. In further their role could very well be that of marketers of i.e. hallmarkers, distributors, security suppliers and scrap recyclers in much the same way that other commodity traders operate.
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