With precious metals in a state of oversupply and international prices outside the control of gold operations, the only path to prosperity is to be on the bottom of the cost curve of the Project. In order to get this goal, gold treatment plants play an important role due to a mine may deliver gold ore at lowest possible cost, but after that, the treatment plant make money or lost it and the economics of the operations is affected too. Basically, there are two possible sides to concentrator economics, the first aspect is related to raise revenue and the second one is referred to cut or reduce costs. The first one is influenced by the optimum throughput, gold grades, gold recovery and increase with the marketing of the final product (e.g. concentrate, Dore bar). Cost cutting comprises keeping costs of power, labor, and supplies to a minimum.

Nowadays, the utilization of large equipment and new technologies has influenced the treatment plant design and operating philosophy and contribute to the economy of the treatment plant. The introduction the optimized gold recoveries processes such as enhanced CIP operations, X-Ray sorting have come into industrial-scale use. Also, on-stream analysis, particle size analysis and computer control are essential in many operations. Although in an emergency, cost cutting receives priority, in a well run processing plant, costs are kept at minimum, and effort is directed primarily at raising revenue, the most fundamental method of which is to increase throughput. More tons translate immediately into more product and lower unit costs. Sometimes, recovery is sacrificed for increased throughput due to a considerable increase in recovery usually is needed to make up the difference. After throughput, the metallurgical criteria of recovery and grade are the most important variables. Recent advances in process control have done much smooth the fluctuations in metallurgical efficiency and raise average performance.

Other important factor to consider is the marketing and has received relatively no much attention from gold processing plants because most precious metals are produced to the same standard grades and sold freely on the open market. There is often additional income to be gained in choosing between available smelter terms, and even on occasion, in the timing of calls for tenders. Additional attention to by-products that usually cost very little extra to produce and downstream processing activities can be rewarding.