Mining Operations And Gold Processing In Cortez Mine Nevada

The Cortez gold mine is located 100 kilometers southwest of Elko, Nevada in Lander County. The Cortez is found on the southern portion of the Battle Mountain-Eureka Trend in north central Nevada. Cortez Gold Mine is a large gold mining and processing facility in Lander and Eureka County, Nevada, United States, located approximately 75 miles (120 km) southwest of Elko. 

Cortez gold mines in Nevada is owned and operated by Barrick Gold and comprises the Pipeline and South Pipeline deposits and the Cortez Hills deposit.The Cortez Pipeline property is 11 kilometers northwest and the Cortez Pediment property (which includes the Cortez Hills deposit) is 4 kilometers southeast of the original Cortez milling complex. The Pipeline and South Pipeline deposits are mined by conventional open-pit methods.  

The Cortez property covers approximately 2,800 square kilometers on one of the world’s most highly prospective mineral trends. Pipeline and South Pipeline are open pit mines, while Cortez Hills is an underground and open pit mining operation. Under continuous operation, Cortez has been open longer than any gold mine in the state of Nevada. It is Barrick's and Nevada's largest gold producer.

Mining Operations Cortez Gold Mines In Nevada United States of America

The Pipeline and South Pipeline deposits are currently being mined using traditional open pit mining techniques, while the Cortez Hills deposit be mined out using both open pit and underground mining techniques.

Process Of Gold Mining Yanacocha Peru The Largest Gold Mine In South America

     

Yanacocha is the largest gold mine in South America, Yanacocha gold mine located in the province and the department of Cajamarca, Some 45km from Cajamarca in northern Peru, at an altitude of 4,700m, The sheer scale of the Yanacocha gold mine in Cajamarca, Peru, is staggering. It is the largest gold mine in Latin America, and the second largest in the world, covering 535 square miles.

Minera Yanacocha operates a complex of five gold mines and two processing facilities with development activities in four primary basins. Not only was this the first significant foreign investment in Peruvian mining for 20 years, but the project was undertaken in an area where guerillas were active, so the operation had to be heavily protected without antagonising local residents. The operation is a joint venture between Newmont (51.35%), Minas Buenaventura (43.65%) and the International Finance Corporation (5%)

The Yanacocha gold district is a 10x4km zone of altered rocks within a belt of tertiary volcanics that extends the whole length of Peru.

In the Yanacocha district, the volcanic pile has been subdivided into three groups:

Process Of Mining In Veladero Gold Mine Argentina

The Veladero gold mine is one of the largest gold mines in Argentina, and in the world. It is located 189 miles/305 km northwest of San Juan, at a height between 4000 and 4850 meters above sea level and located in the San Juan province of Argentina, immediately to the south of the Pascua-Lama property, Veladero gold mine in the highly prospective Frontera district.

The Veladero mine property contains several large deposits of gold and silver mineralisation in altered, silicified volcanic rock, and various types of silicified breccia. Main-stage mineralisation is superimposed on the Miocene volcanic vent complex of diatreme breccias, associated pyroclastic rocks, flow domes, and porphyry intrusions 

Process of mining in Veladero gold mine Argentina is a conventional mining open-pit operation where ore is crushed by a two-stage crushing process with drilling and blasting of ore and waste. Mineral rock transported and carried by a conventional truck  with shovel operation and transported via overland conveyor and trucks to the leach pad area.

Mining Methods And Gold Processing Musselwhite Mines

   

      Mining methods and gold processing musselwhite mines initially operated both open-pit and underground mines, open-pit production having been designed to ensure mill feed at a rate of 3,300t/d for about five years following mill commissioning. Most of the mine’s ore is now sourced from underground. And gold processing from musselwhite mines processing includes crushing, grinding, leaching by cyanidation, carbon in pulp recovery and electrowinning, to achieve an overall recovery of approximately 96%.

      The stratigraphy in the Musselwhite mine vicinity is dominated by mafic volcanics, chemical sediments and felsic volcanics. External into the supracrustal sequences are a series of undifferentiated gneisses and granitoids. All mineral lithologies within the immediate mine area have been metamorphosed at mid to upper amphibolite facies. Mineralization is predominantly hosted within meta-chemical sediments (banded iron formations) and in particular within garnet-magnetite-grunerite facies meta-banded iron formations (locally termed the Northern Iron Formation). The location of mineralization is controlled by the intersection of shear zones and folded meta-banded iron formations. These geological controls result in mineralized shoots, which plunge at approximately 15 degrees to grid north, have a down dip extent of up to 150 metres, down plunge continuation in excess of 1.5 kilometres, and across-lithology width of up to 10 metres. Mineralized zones are characterized by abundant pyrrhotite, quartz flooding and, rarely, visible gold.

Mining Methods In  Musselwhite Mines

Gold Mining Industry In South Africa

      

       The country of South Africa is the producer of gold in the world. The successful gold mining industry in South Africa has had a significant impact on the development of africa as an advanced an economically successful country. Mining in South Africa has been the main driving force behind the history and development of Africa's most advanced and richest economy, after Nigeria The nation's gold mining efforts began with the discovery of a diamond stone at the Orange River in 1867. Soon after, the Kimberly pipes were discovered and explored, and gold rushes began to Pilgrim's Rest and Barberton. The Witwatersrand gold rush took place in 1886. This historical event began the development of the gold field in the area and formed the well known city of Johannesburg which is a region africa gold mines. Known as the Witwatersrand basin, this popular area has generated more than 41,000 tons of gold from Africa Mining and continues to be mined today. It is a massive area that encompasses more than 400km.

      The gold mining industry in South Africa is successful due to the countries large gold in africa, which make up a substantial portion of the gold reserves and gold prospecting in the entire world, with some estimates over 50%. The US Geological survey believes that the country has over 6000 metric tons of precious metal, but 95% of it is located underground. The future of gold mining industry in South Africa depends on the level of gold, that the mines can produce. However, the extraction of gold has recently declined because of rising costs. These higher costs are a direct result of the declining grades, an increase in the underground depth of the mines and a declining gold price.

Gold Mines Bald Mountain ( History, Mining Methods And Operation )

     

      The Bald Mountain mine is one of largest gold mines in the world. The Bald Mountain mine lies within the Southern Ruby Mountains of northeastern Nevada, approximately 110 kilometers northwest of Ely, Nevada and 110 kilometers southeast of Elko, Nevada. Bald Mountain is operated by Barrick and ore is sourced from multiple open pits over an estimated 600 km2 property with processing at multiple conventional heap leaching facilities. Bald Mountain is the largest mine site by area in the U.S. It stretches 40 km north to south and 16 km east to west with the north and south areas being 19 km apart.

History Bald Mountain mine 

      The Bald Mountain mine lies on the western flanks of Little Bald Mountain and Big Bald Mountain. Rocks exposed in the area comprise a conformable, generally SSE dipping sequence of Cambrian to Silurian limestones, dolomites, shales, quartzites and siltstones. These sediments have been intruded by the Jurassic (159 Ma) Bald Mountain quartz-monzonite stock, and related felsic dykes, along a major north-west structural trend. Intense pre- and post-mineral faulting has produced a complex structural regime at Bald Mountain, controlled by the intersection of deep crustal NW and NNE trending fractures which have localised and controlled the location of gold deposits. Overall , the pluton, associated dykes and Au mineralisation are all controlled by the crustal scale, NW trending Bida Trend structure. Every rock exposed in that part of the district, from the lower Cambrian Hamburg Dolomite to the Silurian Laketown Dolomite has hosted some ore (Placer Dome, 1995).

Diagram Of Gold Mining Processing

      Gold mining was first carried out in alluvial areas. Processing system is also very simple to do that is by panning using a tray, which then developed with gold mining wave table, and followed by gravity separation method using the amalgamation process with the capture of mercury. Gold exploration in the lower layers of soil to get the primary sediment deposits began in 1860 with gold using a cyanide treatment system. And in 1960 the method of processing low-grade gold began being applied, which carried out the processing system through leaching heap, this process is basically developed from gold processing system using cyanidation . Of all the gold mineral processing must go through several stages in all these stages it is absolutely live to get the desired results, as for some stages it can be underlined by the diagram below

GOLD ORE

 CRUSHING / MILLING

 

GOLD BARS

Explanation Of The Gold Processing In A Simple Diagram Above :

Panning Gold Equipment

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Extracting Gold By Carbon In Pulp with Activated Carbon

       Carbon In Pulp is the absorption of compounds into carbon Dicyano Aurrat. In the process extracting gold by carbon in pulp with activated carbon occurs after the leaching of mineral ore slurry in a tank. And during the washing, the carbon-in-leach and adsorption occur simultaneously. In both processes mineral ore leaching slurry will be transferred from one tank into the recovery tank of carbon using a pumping machine.  

This is generally accomplished by passing the slurry through a series of adsorption vessels coupled with the periodic transfer of carbon, usually associated with pulp, and in the opposite direction. Column tanks are often used consists of a large carbon column (diameter 5 to 8 feet) and 15 to 20 feet in height, and filled with activated carbon. Minimum load of carbon rule of thumb is one pound of activated carbon per 0.1 ounces of gold are present in solution, and usually it's a few pounds per 1 / 10 ounce

         Two main methods Carbon In Pulp (CIP) and Carbon Columns may consist of the most widely used technique for extracting gold today. Both methods use a large tank in the column parallel step where gold is dissolved in the slurry (pulp) through a chemical process and combine agitation, oxygen and cyanide. In CIP, the carbon is mixed with a solution of cyanide leach and ore agitated in the Tank leaching, and the adsorption process will separate the gold. 

 This will bring together between carbon and gold cyanide solution which is attached to the carbon. Granular carbon is often hard to use in a variety of sizes between 10-16 mesh. Carbon is then filtered by using the screening, on-screen screening of carbon will settle and the liquid is finely ground ore (-100 mesh) will be screened out through the screen into the tank.CIP treatment system can be described simply as a picture diagram below:

Diagram of the processing of gold with carbon in pulp

Process Electrowinning For Gold Mining

Electrowinning is an electrochemical process used to reduce the metal cations to the cathode surface of an aqueous solution derived from the chemical leaching proces. Electrowinning or often referred to as electroextraction is the electrodeposition of metals from ore minerals that have dissolved into the liquid and will be processed using Electrorefining to remove impurities from the metal. Electrowinning an electrolytic process that is very old in the mining industry. 

The English chemist Humphry Davy first obtained sodium metal in the form of the element in 1807 by electrolysis of molten sodium hydroxide. And then in 1847 Maximilian, Duke of Leuchtenberg first to show an experiment about Electrorefining copper. Then James Elkington patented a commercial process in 1865 and successfully opened the first factory in Pembrey, Wales in 1870. The first commercial plant in the United States is Balbach and Sons Refining and smelting Company in Newark, New Jersey in 1883

     Electrowinning is applied to a variety of chemical solutions that are found in large mining industry. This process involves the use of alkaline cyanide solution as an electrolyte in a cell as the anode and cathode, among others, can use:

ANODE      ( - )	GOLD 99,99 %	STAINLESS STEEL 316	DICOATING MERKURY COPPER	IRON
CATHODE  ( + )	SILVER  99,99	STAINLESS STEEL 316	TIN	ALUMINUM

Cell reaction that occurs is: Merkury dicoating Copper, Lead, Iron, Aluminum
Anode: 2OH-→ O2 + H2O + 2e-
Cathode: 2Au (CN) 2 - + 2e-→ 2Au + 4CN-
Overall: 2Au (CN) 2 - + 2OH-→ 2Au + O2 + H2O + 4CN-

     

Process Flow Gold Mining

       Gold mining was first carried out in alluvial areas, namely in watersheds that have a mineral content of the ore deposits of gold, where gold is mined by a very simple way by using the tools of a pan. This processing method gold panning is very simple, the separation between the gold ore minerals is done by shaking the pan to follow the movement of the hand that spins in the flow of water while hand is vibrated so that the gold ore will drop down, then slowly poured the water in the pan out as the flow of sea water waves , so that the sand which is above the exit wasted, while the gold ore would remain at the bottom. The separation between the gold ore with other minerals in the alluvial deposits  then developed with gold mining wave table, and then followed by a gravity separation method using the process of merging with the capture of mercury.  Gold exploration in the lower layers of soil to get the primary sediment deposits began in 1860 with gold using a cyanide treatment system. And in 1960 the method of processing low-grade gold began being applied, which carried out the processing system through leaching heap, this process is basically developed from gold processing system using cyanidation. Economic climate that developed during the decade of 60-70s also forced more and more advanced processing technology so that the plague of gold exploration gold mining began to flourish around the world. And during this decade found several technologies that can improve the recovery of gold recovery even for low-grade gold. This development was influenced by the development of chemical technology.

Some of the advanced and economical technology used in the processing of gold mining is

Carbon in Pulp (CIP)
       Carbon in pulp process or CIP was developed in the early 70's. In the process, the leaching of gold ore mineral rocks through the stages of cyanidation process, then the particles of gold in gold-rich solution is absorbed by the pores of the carbon. Carbon containing gold is then washed and the electrolysis to produce metallic gold bullion.
     
Heap Leaching
       Heap leach is a method developed by Henin and Lindstrom to process low grade ore with large scale and small production costs, so that the lowest levels of mineral ore can still be economical. This is a process heap leach gold leaching low-grade rocks are stockpiled, then the solution containing the metal particles are screened and separated by electrolysis. Heap leach done repeatedly and on a large scale.


Ore Refractories
      Ore is refractory gold ore that can not be processed by simple cyanidation because it wrapped up by other minerals, such as sulfide or telluroid. But this can be in cyanidation ore after roasting for wrapping wet mineral particles of gold. This ore can be treated by chlorination followed by cyanidation and zinc precipitation or with CIP and electrowinning.

Of all the gold mineral processing must go through several stages in all these stages it is absolutely live to get the desired results, as for some stages it can be underlined by the diagram below

Processing Flow Chart Of Gold

Mining gold from year to year is always an increase, in which the processing system became more developed, ranging from mining system that uses a simple system to a more modern processing system. Gold mining was first carried out in alluvial areas. Processing system is also very simple to do that is by panning using a tray, which then developed with gold mining wave table, and followed by gravity separation method using the amalgamation process with the capture of mercury. Gold exploration in the lower layers of soil to get the primary sediment deposits began in 1860 with gold using a cyanide treatment system. And in 1960 the method of processing low-grade gold began being applied, which carried out the processing system through leaching heap, this process is basically developed from gold processing system using cyanidation . Of all the gold mineral processing must go through several stages in all these stages it is absolutely live to get the desired results, as for some stages it can be underlined by the diagram below

 OPEN PIT MINING

Mining Activities In The Open Mine

Open pit is an excavation carried out on the surface of land that is intended to take the materials in the ore minerals in the soil surface. Surface mining is one of two known mining systems, namely the open mines and underground mines. where all the activities or mining activities conducted on or relatively near the earth's surface and the workplace is directly related to the outside world.

Mining the open pit itself is done with several stages of the process of work which includes:

• The Preparation Stage 
• Mining Operations  
• Processing and Marketing 
• Reclamation

* The Preparation Stage

In the preparatory phase of mining activity performed early in the process of extraction or mining of minerals consists of the preparation phase or pre-mining process, and in this activity include: 

Mining Processing Operation

After the stage of preliminary exploration is known that the existing reserves have a good prospect with a review of knowledge or more accurate data regarding the depth, thickness, slope, and the spread of reserves in 3-Dimensions (length-width-thick) as well as data on the strength of rock sampling, groundwater conditions, and the spread of the structure, width and slope mines then conducted an exploratory stage in detail or commonly referred to as the exploitation of an activity carried out either in a simple (manual) or mechanical, including excavation, parsing, loading and transportation of minerals. Several phases of mining activities in outline are:

How To Find Alluvial Gold Deposits

Eluvial placers usually represent a transitional stage between a residual placer and a stream placer. Genesis  or eluvial gold placer deposits formed by precipitation  and reconcentration  gold-bearing sediments from the occurrence of primary gold. Where one type merges into another, they cannot be clearly distinguished. They are characteristically found in the form of irregular sheets of surface detritus and soil mantling a hillside below a vein or other source of valuable mineral. It should be noted that the parent vein or lode mayor may not outcrop at the actual ground surface.Placer deposits are generally  classified  according  to their depositional  environment. Eluvial placers differ from residual placers in that surface creep slowly moves the gold and weathered detritus down hill, allowing the lighter portions to be removed by rain wash and wind. As the detrital mass gravitates downhill, a rough stratification or concentration of values may develop but this is rarely perfected to the degree found in stream placers.Marine placers occur offshore near the coast; fluvial placers occur in river valleys  and in the watershed  are analyzed that contain the incidence  of primary  gold upstream. In conducting searches eluvial gold vein that we need to do  is find a location mountainous areas  or hilly areas that have a strong granite or crystalline deposits is the good end. Area where geological upheaval has occurred and the pressure  is a prime location. The place to look for gold eluvial including creeks and ditches along the sides of hills and in depressions between the hills. Eluvial deposits occur on the hillsides  and in the hollows between the hills.Eluvial placers are typically limited in extent but there have been cases such as at Round Mountain, Nevada, (Vanderhurg, 1936, pp. 133·145) where this type of placer supported large-scale mining operations.

      Eluvial gold can be found in the low hills, rises and flat-lying areas adjacent to the location above. This is often covered with debris of quartz and iron ore. Eluvial deposits are concentrated in the gradient changes, such as the bottom of the hill.supergene deposits found on low hills or flat-lying areas which have developed laterite profile above bedrock. Supergene gold occurrence is difficult to predict because it is controlled by a complex combination of processes

    

Potential Mineral Resources Of Gold Ore

Gold is formed from a process magmatisme or mineral concentration  at the surface. Some  precipitate  formed  due process and hydrothermal solutions metasomatis contacts and often together minerals pyrite and other sulfides, silver-gold telurid, skhelit and tourmaline, whereas the concentration of sediment  mechanically  produce  put (placer). as are generally contained in a hydrothermal  zone  where  hydrothermal  zones  in general is a volcanic area. Some solutions come from the release of  water  contained  in the  magma  when  the magma  rises  and cools. Others originated from meteoric water or sea water circulating in the crust. Mineral deposit  formed  by the heated sea water volcanic activity, and sediment shaped sulfide compound, called volcano genic massive sulfide deposits.

      Genesis of gold itself is said that gold comes from a reservoir that is the core of the earth  from which the magmatic water containing sulfide ions, chloride ions, and ion transport tio metal complexes of gold to the surface of  the earth. The direction of  flow  of chemical solution  containing  gold  are generally in line with the volcanic magma channel forming veins of gold. When a solution of  gold  deposited  on the  channel  that has been frozen magma hydrothermal  process, which is heading volcanic activity occurred from contact with meteoric water,  hot rocks or magmatic water upward movement in which both carry and dissolve the  sulfide-chloride ion complex-tio which causes the deposited gold on earth's surface. When the gold bearing  veins  become weak, then gold will be separated and then precipitate as eluvial

  

Types Of Gold Veins In The Mining

Gold vein is the outcropping of rocks and usually very often contain minerals of gold ore. In the process of vein formation is most common is gold veins that are not visible to the naked eye because it is usually always together with a mineral carrier such as quartz, sulfide, calcite and some clay minerals. And thickness of veins ranges from a few centimeters to four meters, and the length can reach several hundred meters and extending to a depth of more than 1,500 m. Some gold vein deposits are characterized by low sulphization and mineralogy consists of quartz, pyrite, galena, chalcopyrite and sphalerite are lower. In some places, sulfides are accompanied by calcite and some silver minerals. It was noted that blood vessels may be in the transition between the gold-quartz-sulfide and carbonate-base metal gold, but also distinguished from each, by different mineralogy and environmental geology

Characteristics of Gold Ore Minerals

Some characteristic features of type ore mineral type

 Gold nuggets with large size of more than 2mm. And the Nuggets usually have a 20K or pure gold content of 83% to 92% or it could be  up to  23K. And this nugget of gold usually has shades of orange yellow color. The formation  of naturally occurring surface oxide layer that inhibits adhesion between the gold flakes. So when gold pieces collide with each other under pressure, they may be joined into larger sections. Another nugget may occur in the form of the original vein prior to erosion, often showing signs of abrasive  polishing  due to  the flow. For many gold nuggets found in outcrop or in a deposit of placer gold veins or lodes that have been weathered. Gold nuggets are also many who find the prospect of the river  area  where  the area  has a  metal  mineral content is very high. 

The Origin Of Gold

The formation of gold through a process magmatisme on the surface as well as activities vulkanisma making it a consequence of the existence of native gold movements in the earth's heat or thermal. Some of the sediment formed by the process metasomatisme contacts and hydrothermal solutions, while the mechanical activity produces Lay or placer deposits. And genesis of gold be categorized into two namely:

• Primary deposition, which is a deposit of igneous rocks and gold form a vein (vein)
• Deposition plaser which is the origin of gold deposits of rock that has been eroded by water into a river stream and gold were deposited because of the specific weight of gold is high.