There are different types of Mining method out of all mining of gold is quite different.
So let's see how gold is being mined and turned into the processed gold bar.
Mining
the ore is just one stage in a long and complex gold mining process.
Long before any gold can be extracted, significant exploration and development
needs to take place, both to determine, as accurately as possible, the size of
the deposit as well as how to extract and process the ore efficiently, safely
and responsibly. On average, it takes between 10-20 years before a gold mine is
even ready to produce material that can be refined.
Many people think about gold nuggets when they think of gold mining, but native nuggets are actually really rare. Gold is more commonly found in the ore as microscopic particles. Usually, every ton of ore only produces <10 grams of gold, in other words, 1 ton of ore is only 0.0005% gold.
To extract the gold the ore is crushed into fine sand and mixed with water creating a slurry.
The slurry is pumped into large vats, where it is mixed with a small amount of cyanide. Cyanide is one of the rare chemicals that dissolve gold.
The gold is melted into a D'ore bar, generally in the 22k range. Then shipped to a refinery for further refining to bring the gold up to pure gold or 9999 fine.
The carbonless liquid is then treated with electrolysis. An electric current is applied to the solution, forming a gold cathode.
The cake-like cathode material is still wet and is too volatile to be smelted. it must be heated, pressed, and dried for 10-12 hours.
From there, the gold cake moves to the furnace where it will be smelted into pure gold. Flux is added to separate the gold from impurities. since Gold is heavy, it sinks to the bottom of the crucible.
The mixture is poured over cascading ingots, like waterfalls. Since the gold on the bottom, it's the last to leave the crucible and only fills the top ingots are all slag.
Once the gold bar is cooled, it's polishedly sampled and stamped for registration. From there, its sent off to be refined into jewelry, industrial parts, and more!
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I am technologist who is passionately dedicated to bring a single platform of knowledge to a mining and geology enthusiast to transform him to a tomorrow's Global leader. This blog provide you with online study material to clear your concepts in various mining technologies and all news/notification related to Earthscience industries.
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