Small-scale gold processing is a flowsheet decision, not a scale decision
Artisanal gold mining is often described as labour-intensive, low-mechanisation extraction, while small scale gold mining can include mechanised plants treating a few tens to a few hundred tonnes per day. The boundary is fuzzy, but the engineering logic is not. A deposit that will only support 50 t/d needs a different circuit than one that will support 1,500 t/d, even if the ore mineralogy looks similar.
Think of it this way: capital and operating cost stay in line with what the deposit can support, not what a brochure promises.
The USGS estimated worldwide gold mine production at 3,300 tons in 2024, and China alone accounted for roughly 10 per cent of global production according to the World Gold Council. Those numbers are not directly useful for your deposit, but they set the context: small producers operate in a market where price volatility is real and capital discipline is non-negotiable. USGS gold statistics and World Gold Council production data both show that while large mines dominate output, the long tail of small deposits remains a significant part of the industry.
Testwork fixes the answer
You would not design a bridge without soil tests, and you should not design a gold plant without ore characterisation. A small deposit does not reduce the need for testwork; it makes every dollar count harder. Xinhai reports that its laboratory completes roughly 5,000 element analyses each month and about 200 metallurgical test programmes each year. The lab holds CNAS accreditation, which is third-party confirmation that it operates to ISO/IEC 17025.
A standard test programme includes Bond work index testing. The Bond work index is the energy, expressed in kilowatt-hours per tonne, required to grind one tonne of ore from an infinite feed size to a product with a P80 of 100 µm. That number sizes the mill and the grinding circuit. If you skip it, you either oversize the mill and waste capital, or undersize it and strangle the plant.
Testwork also distinguishes free gold from refractory gold, coarse gold from fine gold, and oxide ore from sulphide ore. Each of those pairs pushes the flowsheet in a different direction. You can read more about the recovery options in our guide to gold recovery methods.
Three realistic process routes for small orebodies
Small gold plants generally fall into one of three process families, and the choice depends on the ore, not just the throughput.
- Gravity-only: For coarse, free-milling gold, a circuit of a crusher, a mill and gravity concentrators can recover a meaningful fraction of the gold without reagents. This is often the lowest-cost route, but it leaves fine gold behind.
- Gravity plus cyanidation: A gravity stage pulls free gold early, then a CIL or CIP circuit leaches the remaining fine gold. On suitable ores, CIL/CIP recovery can reach 99%, but that figure is a process limit, not a guarantee for any particular ore.
- Gravity plus flotation: When gold is locked in sulphides, flotation produces a concentrate that can be sold or further treated. A small sulphide orebody may still need flotation even if the throughput is low.
The difference between CIL and CIP matters for plant layout and operating cost. In CIP, carbon moves counter-current to pulp; in CIL, leaching and adsorption happen in the same vessels. Our page on Gold CIL vs CIP explains the trade-offs.
Sometimes a combination is appropriate. A gravity circuit ahead of leaching removes coarse gold before cyanide contact, which reduces locking and shortens leach residence time.
Modular plants cut site time and risk
A modular gold plant is a process circuit built as pre-assembled skids, containers or steel-framed modules. The crushing, grinding, gravity concentration and leaching sections are erected and tested in the fabrication workshop, then shipped to site where foundations and module connections are the main remaining work. That approach can cut site construction from several months to a few weeks on suitable sites.
Factory pre-assembly matters in remote areas. You avoid exposing welders, electricians and millwrights to weather, poor scaffolding and inconsistent site power. The modules arrive with equipment aligned and tested. Xinhai's modular engineering team is part of its mine design institute, and the company operates three manufacturing bases covering about 110,000 m² and more than 1,000 equipment types. That capacity supports small modular plants and large installations up to 50,000 t/d.
If you are considering a plant that can be moved or expanded later, read our guide to modular gold processing plants.
Right-sizing keeps capital honest
Every small project lives on a tight capital budget. The most common mistake is to copy a flowsheet from a 5,000 t/d mine and simply shrink the equipment. That does not work. Pipe sizes, pump duties, tank volumes and control logic do not scale linearly. A right-sized plant uses mills and tanks sized to the actual tonnage, not overspecified. It also leaves room to expand if the deposit proves larger than first estimated.
For example, a plant treating 1,200 t/d of free-milling oxide ore may need only a single-stage ball mill and a gravity circuit. The same tonnage of sulphide ore might require flotation, concentrate thickening and filtration. The capital difference is not a percentage tweak; it can be a factor of two or more.
Xinhai designs and supplies small-scale gold plants the same way it supplies 15,000 t/d operations. The equipment range is the same, but the selection logic starts with ore, not with a catalogue. For a dedicated small plant approach, see our small-scale gold plant page.
Cyanide is an engineering discipline, not an afterthought
If your flowsheet includes cyanidation, you are responsible for the safe handling, storage and destruction of cyanide. Cyanide is toxic, and its use is governed by safety and compliance procedures, not by an equipment catalogue. The International Cyanide Management Code is a voluntary industry programme for gold and silver mining operations covering production, transport, storage and use of cyanide. Signatory operations are certified through third-party audits. You should treat that code as a minimum reference, not a marketing badge. The International Cyanide Management Code sets out the framework.
Small plants sometimes skimp on cyanide destruction because the tonnage is low. That is a false economy. Tailings containing cyanide still require detoxification, monitoring and secure storage. A well-engineered plant includes cyanide management in the same package as the leach tanks and carbon circuit. For more on leaching, see our guide to gold leaching.
What Xinhai brings to small gold projects
According to the company's published figures, Xinhai has served more than 2,500 mines, completed over 600 EPC+M+O projects, and operates in over 100 countries. Those are self-reported numbers, but the underlying capability is concrete: a design institute, three manufacturing bases, a CNAS-accredited laboratory and a field engineering team. The design institute holds a Class B metallurgical qualification in China, which is the appropriate level for the metallurgical design work it performs; Chinese qualifications are not automatically valid in other jurisdictions, so they sit alongside, not in place of, JORC or NI 43-101 compliant design.
For a small deposit, that means you can buy a single-source package: testwork, flowsheet design, equipment supply, installation and commissioning. Xinhai's EPC+M+O model covers engineering, procurement, construction, mine construction management and mine operation. You don't have to manage six contractors; you manage one interface.
Talk to an engineer if you want a proposal based on your drill core rather than a generic quote. Contact Xinhai.