Recovery of gold and silver from mine-run dumps or crushed ores using a portable ion-exchange carbon plant

System for recovering at least one of gold and silver from mine run dumps or crushed ores containing at least one of gold and silver, comprising an inclined surface for supporting a heap of the mine-run dumps or crushed ores, means for distributing an alkali and cyanide containing aqueous solution onto the heap, a storage zone for the resulting pregnant solution arranged to collect the run-off of the solution from the inclined surface, a plurality of activated carbon loaded ion exchange vessels mounted on mobile support means, the activated carbon being supported on a punchplate distributor in each of the vessels, conduit means for feeding the pregnant solution upwardly through the punchplate distributor supporting the activated carbon, the upward velocity of the solution maintaining the carbon in a teetered state and serially feeding the pregnant solution through the vessels thereby to strip the gold and silver values from the solution, and conduit means for recycling resulting barren solution for distribution onto the heap.