Standing nearly 4 meters tall, and weighing-in at over 12 tonnes, the introduction of KC-XD70 has set yet another new standard in gravity separation technology.

"We've had the XD70 project under development for the last two years," stated Doug Corsan, Knelson's VP of Sales.

"With the challenges that the gold industry has been facing over the last 4-5 years, we've seen a strong trend towards the development of big tonnage open pit deposits which has created the need for higher capacity processing equipment. When you combine this with an ever increasing number of large base metal flotation operations that are installing Knelson technology as a method of increasing by-product gold recovery, there was strong motivation to complete this project and produce the first unit," added Corsan.

A size comparison of the Knelson XD70 concentrator.

"What's really exciting about this project is the fact that, in addition to becoming the world's largest centrifugal concentrator, the KC-XD70 has provided the opportunity for us to introduce a number of exciting new innovations in our patented cone technology that have been the focus of our R&D efforts for the past couple of years. We're confident that these new developments raise the bar in terms of metallurgical performance and further the application base for our technology."

When officially launched, the KC-XD70 will supersede Knelson's KC-XD48 unit as the worlds highest capacity and industry proven centrifugal concentrator. Currently the nominal operating capacity for the XD70 has been established at 650 tonnes (715 tons) per hour, however, computer modeling indicates that mechanically the unit will be capable of processing up to 1000 tonnes per hour.