Goldstrike mine

Goldstrike Mine
Location
Goldstrike Mine
Location in Nevada
Location Eureka County
State Nevada
Country United States
Owner
Company Barrick Gold
Website Barrick website
NYSE
TSX		 ABX
ABX
Production
Products Gold , Silver
Production Gold: 1,706,137 ounces
Silver: 204,324 ounces
Financial year 2008
History
Opened 1986

Barrick Goldstrike is a gold mine in North Eastern Nevada, Lynn District, Eureka County. It is located on the Carlin Trend where several other mines are found. Barrick Gold started mining Goldstrike in 1986. It is a part of the largest gold mining company in North America, Barrick. Goldstrike is the largest gold mine in North America.

Contents

Mining operations

The Goldstrike consist of three distinct mines. The large open-pit mine Betze-Post and the two Underground mines Meikle and Rodeo. The ore of all three mines is milled and heap leached with the cyanide process.[1]

The Carlin-type gold deposits host gold mostly in invisible fine grains. For the extraction the milled gold ore is leached with toxic cyanide in the process. In this process large amounts of cyanide containing waste water has to be stored in ponds after the gold is separated from the water. The ore is grinned and than either leached in autoclaves or with heap leaching techniques. For the leaching the ore is put on plastic foil to prevent contamination and to drain the gold containing leaching solution. The cyanide containing liquid is applied to the top of the heap and the liquid slowly passes the heap.[1]

In 2008 the mining from the open-pit mine Betze-Post yielded 1,281,450 oz of gold and 152,886 oz of silver, while the underground operations in the Meikle mine yielded 424,687 oz of gold and 51,438 oz of silver. This is 30% of the total 5,698,000 oz output of all gold mining operations in Nevada.[2]

Geology

Like most Carlin type gold deposit in Nevada the gold was epithermally deposited in carbonate or silicate sedimentary rocks. The source of the heat is magmatic but the exact mechanism is still under debate. The Betze Post deposit is up to 450 m thick and spans between 2300 m width with a length of 3000 m. The average gold amount per tonne of ore is 0.136 oz.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b "Geologie und wirtschaftliche Bedeutung der Goldstrike Lagerstätte". http://www.geoberg.de/text/geology/08012401.php. Retrieved 2010-06-06. 
  2. ^ Doug Driesner and Alan Coyner. "Major Mines of Nevada 2008 - Mineral Industries in Nevada’s Economy". The Nevada Division of Minerals. http://www.nbmg.unr.edu/dox/mm/mm08.pdf. Retrieved 2010-06-06. 
  3. ^ Tsai, Peggy (September 2008). "Goldstrike Mine – Nevada’s Giant Golden Goose". Mining.com Magazine: 44–47. http://magazine.mining.com/issues/0810/GoldstrikeMine.pdf. Retrieved 24 August 2011. 

External links