Build a starter gold plant

How do I use the builder?

Pick the starting plant closest to your deposit and budget. Machines sit in process order from left to right, with power along the top and water along the bottom. Drag a machine up or down its column to reorder it. To connect two machines, drag from the round handle on the right of the first one onto the second, or select it and use its Connect to buttons. Select a machine or a line and press Remove to take it out.

When you add a machine while another is selected, the new one is connected to it automatically. Duplicate copies a machine with its connections, which is how you run two mills or two sluices side by side. The dot on each machine shows whether it is essential, recommended or optional.

What can I build with $10,000?

On alluvial ground, $10,000 covers a working starter plant: a hopper, two sluices, a water pump and a settling pond, with money left for a centrifuge later. Hard rock costs more because the ore must be crushed and ground before any gold is caught. The leanest new hard-rock plant in the builder, a diesel jaw crusher, one wet pan mill and a sluice, averages about $13,000 with shipping and installation. Under $10,000, hard-rock miners usually start with used machines or pay to have their ore crushed.

Where do the prices come from?

Prices are ranges in US dollars for one new unit. Imported machines show FOB China prices, the price of the machine loaded on a ship at a Chinese port, from manufacturer listings on Made-in-China, Alibaba and Global Sources checked in October 2026. Outliers and bulk-order discounts are left out.

Hoppers, sluices, ponds, tanks, the gold room kit, small petrol pumps and small generators are local Tanzania prices. A few items had no reliable public listing, and the builder marks their ranges as Bart Mining estimates.

How is the total worked out?

The builder adds 25% of the FOB price of imported machines for sea freight, clearance and road delivery to site, and 15% of all equipment for foundations, piping, wiring and setting up. The average estimate is the midpoint of the resulting range. These are planning figures, not a quotation: a supplier's current price, the delivery route and your site can move the real figure either way.

How are throughput, power and fuel calculated?

Throughput is set by the weakest stage. A plant with a 3 t/h crusher and one wet pan mill grinding 0.6 t/h treats 0.6 t/h, so a second mill raises output more cheaply than a bigger crusher would. Power compares the electric load with about 80% of the generator's kVA rating. Fuel uses about 0.27 litres of diesel per kWh of load, plus the engines on diesel and petrol machines.

What does the estimate leave out?

The total covers the processing plant only. It does not include the mining licence and permits, digging and hauling the ore or gravel, land and security, import duty or VAT where they apply, or the wages and working capital needed until the first gold is sold.

How do I know which plant suits my deposit?

Gravity machines catch free gold well, but very fine gold or gold locked in sulphides needs a test before you commit to a plant. On a new hard-rock deposit, run a bulk sample through a small plant or a gravity test at a laboratory before fixing the number of mills. On alluvial ground, test pits show the grade and how much clay the gravel holds, which decides between a trommel and a scrubber. Our alluvial plant and wet pan mill plant examples show how these choices play out.

What happens when I ask for a quote?

Get a quote for this build puts your equipment list and the estimate into the contact form, so our team can confirm current prices, delivery to your site and the machine sizes for your ore. Copy share link saves the exact layout to a link you can send to a partner or open on another device.