Pogo mine

The Pogo mine is a gold mine in the Alaska.^[1] The mine is located in the north of the country in Alaska.^[1] The mine has estimated reserves and resources of 4,873,000 troy ounces (151.6 tonnes) of gold.^[1] It is located about thirty miles northeast of Delta Junction, Alaska. Based on currently known reserves as of 2013, the planned mine life is to 2019.

Orebody & Mining Method

The orebody consists of numerous highly-irregular quartz veins, ranging in thickness from 2ft to 40ft with 8-20ft being typical, and ranging in dip from horizontal to vertical with 30-45 degrees being typical. A complex system of faulting offsets the veins both parallel and perpendicular to the strike, resulting in a "chopped-up" orebody. The mine utilizes drift-and-fill and overhand cut-and-fill mining methods. Access to the orebody is via decline and spiral ramp. After blasting, ore is trucked to the central underground "ore bin", where it is then fed to a conveyor which takes it out of the mine directly to the mill. Typical daily production is about 2,500 tons of ore yielding approximately 1,000 troy ounces of gold.

Pogo is notable for its paste backfill system, wherein a portion of the mine's tailings from which gold has been extracted are mixed with cement and then pumped back underground to support subsequent further excavation. This has the additional environmental benefit of reducing the amount of tailings which need to be stored on surface, minimizing the footprint of the mine's dry-stack tailings storage facility.

References