Based on data from the U.S. Geological Society, estimated gold ore
reserves that have not been mined and available on the planet about
51,000 tons, making gold business is getting bigger. As quoted from the latest data issued by Thompson Reuters and the Metals Economics Group reported by CNBC, Monday (19/03/2012), here are 10 of the world's biggest gold mine owned by public companies. Mines is considered as the greatest because it comes from one mine alone, not the production of several mines which are then combined by a single company.
It's her 10 largest gold mine in the world, among others :
1. Grasberg Mine
Grasberg is a world-class mining complex in Indonesia, where Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold is engaged in exploration and development, mining and milling of ore containing copper, gold and silver. The Grasberg mine is located at Tembagapura in Irian Jaya, which is Indonesia's easternmost province, on the western half of the island of New Guinea. The mine is about 60 miles north of Timika, a town of about 100,000 people. There are about two million people living in this region. The Lorentz National Park, which has several glaciers on its peaks, lies to the east of the mine. The mine is 96 km north of the southwest coast of Indonesia at elevations of 2,500 to 4,200 m above sea level.
- Location: Papua, Indonesia
- Gold production in 2011: 1.444.000 0z
- The area: 527,400 acres
- Miners: Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold
- Type of mine: open mine and underground
2. Cortez Mine
The
Cortez gold mine is located 100 kilometres southwest of Elko, Nevada in
Lander County. The Cortez Pipeline property is 11 kilometres northwest
and the Cortez Pediment property (which includes the Cortez Hills
deposit) is 4 kilometres southeast of the original Cortez milling
complex. The Cortez property covers approximately 2,800 square
kilometres on one of the world’s most highly prospective mineral trends.
The Cortez gold mine is located 100 kilometres southwest of Elko,
Nevada, USA. It is a complex of several open pit mines, an underground
mine, concentrator and several heap leach pads. The Pipeline and South
Pipeline deposits are mined by conventional open-pit methods.
- Location: Elko, Nevada.
- Gold production in 2011: 1.421.000 oz
- Broad Area: 1081 square meters
- Miners: Barrick Gold
- Type of mine: open mine
3. Yanacocha Gold Mine
The mine is located high in the Andes Mountains, 28 miles north of Cajamarca and 375 miles north of Lima. The property encompasses 607 square miles (1,572 square kilometers). Yanacocha is the largest gold producer in South America. Yanacocha is a complex of five open pit mines, four leach pads, two gold recovery plants and a crushing and agglomeration facility. The Yanacocha mine operation is spread across 600 square miles at altitudes as high as 14,000 feet. Actual operations cover approximately 60 square miles. The highest operational area is at 13,812 feet. The Yanacocha gold deposits are high sulfidation epithermal gold deposits, with varying amounts of silver, that occur within a mid to late Miocene flow dome field with associated volcaniclastic rocks and minor lacustrine sediments. The gold is associated with silver bearing enargite and arsenian pyrite. Copper mineralization occurs at depth below the gold deposits.
- Location: Cajamarca, Peru
- Gold production in 2011: 1.293.000 oz
- The area: 96 square feet
- Miners: Mining Newmont, Buenaventura, World Bank
- Type of mine: open
4. Goldstrike mine
The Goldstrike Complex is located on the Carlin Trend, united mining industries the most prolific in the Western Hemisphere, about 60 kilometres northwest of Elko, Nevada, USA. The Goldstrike operations consist of the Betze-Post open pit mine and the Meikle and Rodeo underground mines which are located just north of the Betze-Post pit, along the same mineralized trend. The 9,921-acre (4,000 ha) Goldstrike property is split into two main listings, the Betze-Post Mine and the Meikle Mine (separately listed). The Betze-Post mine includes the Screamer zone, North Betze, and West Betze areas. The separately listed Meikle mine includes the Rodeo and Griffin deposits.
- Location: Eureka and Elko Counties, Nevada.
- Gold production in 2011: 1.088.000 oz
- Miners: Barrick Gold
- Type of mine: open mine and underground
5. Veladero Gold mine
The
Veladero mine is located in the San Juan Province of Argentina,
immediately to the south of the Pascua-Lama property in the highly
prospective Frontera District. The property is located at elevations of
4,000 and 4,850 metres above sea level, approximately 374 kilometres
northwest of the city of San Juan.Veladero is a conventional open-pit
operation where ore is crushed by a two-stage crushing process and
transported via overland conveyor and trucks to the leach pad area.
Run-of-mine ore is trucked directly to the valley-fill leach pad.
- Veladero Gold Mine
- Location: San Juan, Argentina
- Gold production in 2011: 957,000 oz
- Miners: Barrick Gold
- Type of mine: open mine
Anglo Gold Ashanti’s Great Noligwa underground gold mine is situated close to the town of Orkney, on the free state side of the Vaal River in South Africa. It adjoins Kopanang and Moab Khotsong as part of AngloGold’s extensive Vaal River operations, which comprise four gold plants, one uranium plant and a sulphuric acid plant.
Geology and reserves
The reefs mined at Great Noligwa are the Vaal Reef and the Crystalkop Reef, with the Vaal Reef accounting for over 90% of the gold produced in the mine. The Vaal Reef consists of 85% of the ore reserve tonnage with mining grades between 10g/t and 20g/t.
Mining and processing
"The reefs mined at Great Noligwa are the Vaal Reef and the Crystalkop Reef, with the Vaal Reef accounting for over 90% of the gold produced in the mine." The complexity of the ore at Great Noligwa has necessitated a scattered mining strategy comprising a twin-shaft system serving eight main levels at an average depth of 2,400m.
- Location: Klerksdorp, South Africa
- Gold production in 2011: 831,000 oz
- The area: 14,602 acres
- Miners: AngloGold Ashanti
- Type of mine: underground mining
Savuka is situated on the West Wits line in the province of Gauteng, approximately 70km southwest of Johannesburg. Savuka is close to the town of Carletonville. The Carbon Leader Reef (CLR) is mined at depths varying between 3,137m and 3,457m below surface and the Ventersdorp Contact Reef (VCR) at a depth of 1,808m below surface.
- Location: Carletonville, South Africa
- Gold production in 2011: 792,000 oz
- The area: 4188 acres
- Miners: Anglo Gold Ashanti
- Type of mine: underground mining
8. Lagunas Norte gold mine
This is the concession for the Lagunas Norte gold mine which is located
on the Alto Chicama property in north-central Peru at an elevation of
4,000 to 4,260 metres above sea level, and is owned by Barrick Gold
Corporation. Lagunas Norte was one of the larger greenfield discoveries
in its time capable of producing more than one million ounces in a year,
and is one of Barrick’s lowest cost operations. The mine itself is an
open-pit, crush, valley-fill heap leach operation.
- Location: Santiago de Chuco, Peru
- Gold production in 2011: 770,000 oz
- Miners: Barrick Gold
- Type of mine: open mine
The Fimiston Open Pit, colloquially known as the Super Pit, is
Australia's largest open cut gold mine. Mining industries in australia this is located off the Goldfields Highway on the south-east edge of Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. The pit is oblong in shape and is approximately 3.5
kilometres long, 1.5 kilometres wide and 360 metres deep. At these
dimensions, it is large enough to be seen from space.
- Location: Kalgoorlie, Australia
- Gold production in 2011: 750,000 oz
- Miners: Barrick Gold; Newmont Mining
- Type of mine: open mine
10. The Boddington Gold Mine
- Location: is a gold and copper mine located 17 km northwest of Boddington, Western Australia. A bedrock resource of almost 20 million ounces was identified
- Gold production in 2011: 741,000 oz
- Miners: Newmont Mining
- Type of mine: open mine
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