Gold Refining

Gold refining is the final stage of the gold production and it consists of removing the impurities that remain in the precious metal after the smelting process. The companies that are specialized in refining are used to receiving both gold scrap and bars which they liquefy. Afterwards, the workers add borax and soda ash to the metal. With their help, the pure gold is separated from other precious metals and less precious metals.

When the procedure is over, a sample of the glittering metal is taken to a laboratory in order to determine if it is pure. If the gold is 99.9% pure then the workers can pour it into bars. The next step is determined to what the gold is intended.

When gold is combined with another metal they together form an alloy. You can tell alloys have been used with the precious metal by looking at its color: white- gold and nickel, silver, palladium; red/pink – gold and cooper; blue – gold an iron.

The glittering metal is measured in karats. This actually refers to how much gold is presented in an object versus another metal. If the karat is big, than the amount of precious metal is high. The 24 karat is 100% gold, the 12 karat has half as much.

People from different cultures prefer different types of karats. People from India like wearing 22 karat jewelry, while Europeans wear 18 karats and Americans are fond of 14 karat. This latter type of precious metal combines the glittering content with the affordability creating the perfect balance.

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Gold Mining In Balkan Region ( Gold Mining In Albania, Macedonia, Kosovo )

Antique gold mining in the Balkan region is well documented begins in the middle ages, but started the modern mining, especially in the last 50 years. Most of this mining was carried out in the region, which covers the three countries; Albania, Macedonia and Kosovo. Anders mined as gold at the other in the region include metals, zinc, copper and lead. 

The civil war in the former Yugoslavia,  in 1991st  in the region gold mining which heavily affected. But with the finish of the war in the spring of 2000 and gaining independence both Macedonia and Kosovo from Yugoslavia and Serbia respectively the mining sector in these countries has begun to grow again.

A number of foreign investors have been awarded mining concessions for gold and this is expected to increase the country to promote gold production. 

Gold Mining In Albania

Unlike the other major gold mined in Albania Minerals include petroleum, coal and natural gas from those found most in the southwestern regions of the country. The country is also contain, copper, cobalt, nickel, dolomite, asbestos, silver, bauxite and kaolin, and other things. 

There has been in the gold mining industry in the recent past, increased investment, and this is probably the country to increase the production of gold. Some of the major players in the gold sector of the country include the Arian resources Perlat copper-gold-silver-cobalt mine is located in Puke district Albania possesses. This mine is part of a 290 hectare exploration license, which runs for 25 years. The mine produces copper, gold, silver and cobalt. 

Another important player in the gold mining sector in the country is the Tirex Resources, owns the mineral rights to the Mirdita district. The company initially received an exploration license for copper and zinc, but shown exploration activities have the presence of high grade gold and silver in the region. The company now

Gold Mining In Macedonia

Macedonia is also well equipped with mineral resources containing gold, lead, copper, silver and cadmium among others. Gold mining in Macedonia dates back to the time of Alexander the Great, where gold was mined used to finance and the running of the Roman Empire. Gold mining has continued to the present day, and occupies an important place in the country’s economy. After years of repressed production, the country has taken on a program in its mining sector to rekindle.  

Today there are several gold projects in the country. These include the Ilovica gold-copper project, which is the first of its greenfield development in the country. The project is owned by Euromax Resources and covers Approximately 500 hectares in a 1,500 ha concession area. Construction of the mine in 2016 with mining declared expected in 2018 to Start 

Another gold mine in the country is the Buchim copper mine, the open pit mine one that gold, silver and copper. The mine was founded in 1979 and is operated by the Solway Industries owned and. The ore is mined from Approximately 0.3 g / t gold. Unlike the two projects mentioned above there are several other gold mining projects still in the research. These include two prospecting concessions and two exploration licenses owned by Reservoir Minerals.  

Gold Mining in Kosovo 

Kosovo is another mineral Wealthy country in the Balkans. Gold in Kosovo is often accompany other minerals such as zinc, copper and lead found, among other things, although some clear alluvial gold reserves along rivers found. For many years, gold in Kosovo mine was mined mainly in Artana that the gold mine with the highest gold content through out Yugoslavia was operated 1939-1989 time. Before its closure, the mine had produced approximately 11.9 tons of gold.

Today is the Large gold mine in Kosovo is the Trepza Mine in Malisevo in wider circle of Prizren. The mine is estimated at a 1.18g / t gold containing a gold reserve of Approximately 0 million tons. This corresponds to Approximately 142 tonnes of gold.  

There are also several projects under exploration. These include the Slivovo exploration. A joint venture between the government and the Avrupa resource that is a subsidiary of Bymecut International Ltd of Australia The exploration was focused on the Peshter gussan block that has shown signs of gold deposits. Avrupa also holds a second exploration license for the Meovit area next to the Ancient Artana Goldmine

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Precious Metal Recovery ( Video )

Precious Metal Recovery refers to the reclaiming of precious metals from specific scrap materials. Many precious metal recovery services employ state of the art refining techniques, for extracting metals such as gold, silver and platinum etc.

These processes can extract precious non-ferrous-metals from industrial scraps, wires tubes and dishoarded bars. Recovery services are used in a variety of industries including, aerospace, jewelry, medical and the semi-conductor and printed circuit board industries.

These services may also include reducing the metal lots to assaying bars for evaluation, by utilizing thermal processes. Metal refining capabilities can include, melting and thermal reduction through incineration.

Recovery refers to the separation of precious metals from noble-metalliferous materials, some of these materials may include catalysts such as electronic assemblies or printed circuit boards. 

To isolate or remove the metals, procedures such as hydrolysis or pyrolysis are commonly employed. With hydrolysis, the noble-metalliferous materials can be dissolved in hydrochloric acid and chlorine gas solution, or dissolved in Aqua regia, which consists of hydrochloric acid and nitric acid. 

In the procedure known as pyrolysis the precious metals are removed by solidifying in a melt to become cinder, and then oxidized. Some metals may be reduced directly with a gas or salt or nitro hydrate connection.

This is followed by various cleaning stages or are recrystallized, and the metals can then be separated from the salt by calcination. These precious metal materials are first hydrolyzed and then thermally prepared (pyrolysed) thereafter. The recycling product is removed and put several times through the cycle.

Precious metal recovery services are companies that purchase materials such as printed circuit boards, old wires, and industrial scraps that contain various precious metals such as :

o Gold & Silver

o Platinum

o Nickel & Tin

o Rhodium

o Palladium

o Copper & Bronze

These materials are then put through various processes to extract the precious metals from them. This makes good economical and environmental sense.

These services may also include buying old jewelry, and other valuable scrap metals such as :

o Brass

o Copper

o Bronze

o Aluminium

o Phosphor Bronze

These metals can then be smelted down and reused, thus saving valuable resources.

This is Video from Precious Metal Analysis - Instrumental Methods for Gold, Silver, Platinum, Palladium and other PGMs

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How Process Fire Assaying For Mineral (Video)

Fire assaying for mineral is the oldest and is considered to be the most reliable method of determining the content of gold and silver in rock or concentrate samples. This method is still the industry standard. The reason why it is called ”fire” assay is simply because it involves smelting the sample which has been mixed with lead oxide.

There are six basic steps in the fire assay procedure: 

• Splitting 
• weighing 
• mixing 
• firing 
• cupelling
• parting.

How the process fire assaying for Mineral

First, the crushed and ground sample of ore or concentrate is carefully split down to smaller samples only around 30 grams. These samples are weighed out and added to a crucible. A mixture of lead oxide, a reducing agent and fluxes is then added. The fluxes usually consist of silica sand, borax and sometimes additional additives like fluorite. The fluxes, reductant, lead oxide and sample are then mixed and fired in a muffle furnace.

The contents of the test material into the container then let all the ingredients to melt in the furnace smelting. In the presence of the reducing agent, typically carbon in any form, e.g. flour, the lead oxide is smelted to lead metal which “collects” any silver and gold that may have been in the sample.

The molten mass is taken from the furnace and mixed before being poured into a cone-shaped mold and allowed to cool. The molten lead sinks to the bottom of the mold, carrying any gold and silver with it, while the rest of the components of the ore along with the flux turn into a glassy slag that floats on top.

After cooling, the metallic lead at the bottom of the mold is separated from the glassy slag which is discarded. The lead is called a “button.”

This metallic lead button is then placed into a cupel, a small dish made from bone ash, and placed into a cupelling furnace. In the “cupelling” process, lead metal turns back into oxide which separates away from the precious metals and soaks into the bone ash cupel, leaving the minute amount of precious metals as a metallic speck called a “bead.”

The next step in the process is called parting, where the bead is weighed to determine the amount of gold and silver that was extractable from the original ore sample.

The bead is then heated in hot nitric acid which dissolves the silver, leaving any gold that may have been present. The parted bead is then carefully weighed and amount of gold is related back to the weight of ore or concentrate sample in the first crucible that was burned.

In more modern laboratories, the bead of precious metals that is recovered in the cupel after the lead has been removed is dissolved in aqua regia. The resulting solution is then analyzed by atomic absorption spectrometry, allowing the grade of gold and silver in the original sample to be back calculated.

Fire assaying is a science, and also to some extent is still an art. Certain types of ore contain elements that may interfere with the result. A good fire assayer knows how to modify the composition of the flux to avoid these problems. The fire assayer knows how to determine the gold and silver content of the assay ton of sample that has been presented.

Video Fire Assay Explained- The Workhorse of Precious Metal Analysis - Gold, Silver and PGMs

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Gold Mining In Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan known as gold production country in Eurasia region. The country is known as producing for a number of important minerals and with the recent development in the mining sector, there is increased exploration activities.

Oil and gas are the two dominant minerals in the country’s economy, but gold is among its most important minerals and is one of the most lucrative sectors in Azerbaijan. With most of the gold resources of the country are still untapped there is still room for more interesting investors in mining investments 

History gold mining in Azerbaijan

Gold mining can be traced back to the time of the Albanian kingdom. The history of gold production areas of the country derived from thousands of years, however gold mining was early on a Little scale with rudimentary methods. Most of the gold was then mined used for trade in the kingdom and with the neighboring kingdoms.

The recent history tracks gold mining at around 1894 when brothers Mekhor a copper mining operation commenced operation, which also produces gold at today Gedabek gold mine. However, the mining came to an abrupt finish in 1917 when the Russian Revolution began 

More gold mines were made primarily on a Little scale by the locals. Gold mining is still an important part of the economy of the country. Gold is produced in the country much smaller in size when compared to some of the leading gold producers in the world.

This is perhaps because most of the gold in the country is produced by Little operations. But with the entry of Large miners in recent times, the gold production in the country is likely to rise.

Some of the major players in the gold production in the country include the following :

AngloAsian Mining

This is the leading gold mining companies in Azerbaijan. The company has rights to six major gold deposits in the country. These gold deposits are Soyutlu, Gedabek, Gyzyl, Ourdubad, Vezhnali and Gosha Bulag. For all of these rights, the company has signed a production sharing agreement (PSA) with the government Mine Approximately 400 tons of gold and 2,500 tons of silver. 

The company currently operates two Large gold mines; the Gosha gold mine and the Gedabek gold mine has a total of Approximately 80,000 ounces of gold per year. The Gedabek gold mine, which is approximately 55 km from Ganja City the biggest of the two mines with an estimated gold resource of Approximately 1.05m ounces of gold, Approximately 8.62m ounces of silver and 81,750 tons of copper.

The mine produced Approximately 50,000 ounces of gold annually. The Gosha gold mine on the other Middle is a Little mine on a 300km2 site and Approximately 50 km from the Gadabek Goldmine.

The mining operation started in 2013 and is expected to produce Approximately 15,000 ounces of gold per year for five years. To improve the production of AngloAsian a new technology introduced in the mine.

The ore is leached then stirred to increase its gold production of sulfides and oxides by more than 65% and 85% respectively. This helps to increase Approximately 20% of the total gold production.

AIMROC is another important gold producing companies in Azerbaijan. The company signed a production sharing agreement (PSA) with the government in two years in 2006 and owns the mineral rights to six gold projects in the country. This gold projects are Goydag, Kurekchay river basins, Garadagh, Dagkesaman, Chovdar and Kohbemadan. The company operates only a gold mine with the rest of the projects are still in development. The Chevdar gold mine began in 2012 and operates it is estimated that Approximately 40 tons of gold  the contained resources

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