Features of gold in mining waste in the territory of the Solovievsky ore cluster

By estimates, potential resources of manmade placers are sufficiently large. Gold producing regions have accumulated considerable gold-bearing mining waste in amount of billion cubic meters in dredge and sluice tailing dumps, bog mucks and at confluences of streams. The gold content of waste mostly agrees with the modern economic standards and is even comparable with the gold content of natural placers. For this reason, gold mining waste is suitable for secondary gold extraction. Efficient development of gold-bearing manmade placers requires studying the causes of gold loss in primary placer mining as well as analyzing the change in properties of gold during its long-term storage in stock piles. The analysis of gold in manmade placers in the territory of the Solovievsky ore cluster is presented, the morphological changes of gold in dumps are revealed, the gold contents are determined from assaying via prospecting holes, and the causes of gold loss in primary mining are told. The electron scanning microscopy detects platinum in gold samples. The recommendations on reduction in loss of fine and very fine gold in sluicing are given. The morphological analysis of gold in waste shows prospects for gold extraction from waste using innovative technologies in gravity concentration with regard to variation in hydraulic size within a narrow range of mass of gold grains.

Alekseev V. S., Banshchikova T. S., Alekseeva E. V. Features of gold in mining waste in the territory of the Solovievsky ore cluster. MIAB. Mining Inf. Anal. Bull. 2021;(7):134145. [In Russ]. DOI: 10.25018/0236_1493_2021_7_0_135.

V.S. Alekseev¹, Cand. Sci. (Eng.), Leading Researcher, e-mail: alekseev.igd.khv@mail.ru,
T.S. Banshchikova¹, Senior Researcher,
E.V. Alekseeva¹, Junior Researcher,
¹ Mining Institute, Far Eastern Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, 680000, Khabarovsk, Russia.

V.S. Alekseev, e-mail: alekseev.igd.khv@mail.ru.

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