Goldstrike mine
Encyclopedia
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.
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
.
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.
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.
or silicate sedimentary rock
s. 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.
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
, Lynn District, Eureka County. It is located on the Carlin Trend where several other mines are found. Barrick Gold
Barrick Gold
Barrick Gold Corporation is the largest pure gold mining company in the world, with its headquarters in Toronto, Ontario, Canada; and four regional business units located in Australia, Africa, North America and South America...
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.
Mining operations
The Goldstrike consist of three distinct mines. The large open-pit mineOpen-pit mining
Open-pit mining or opencast mining refers to a method of extracting rock or minerals from the earth by their removal from an open pit or borrow....
Betze-Post and the two Underground mines Meikle and Rodeo. The ore of all three mines is milled and heap leached
Heap leaching
Heap leaching is an industrial mining process to extract precious metals, copper, uranium, and other compounds from ore.The process has ancient origins; one of the classical methods for the manufacture of copperas was to heap up iron pyrite and collect the leachate from the heap, which was then...
with the cyanide process
Gold cyanidation
Gold cyanidation is a metallurgical technique for extracting gold from low-grade ore by converting the gold to a water soluble coordination complex. It is the most commonly used process for gold extraction...
.
The Carlin-type gold deposits host gold mostly in invisible fine grains. For the extraction the milled gold ore is leached with toxic cyanide
Cyanide
A cyanide is a chemical compound that contains the cyano group, -C≡N, which consists of a carbon atom triple-bonded to a nitrogen atom. Cyanides most commonly refer to salts of the anion CN−. Most cyanides are highly toxic....
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.
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.
Geology
Like most Carlin type gold deposit in Nevada the gold was epithermally deposited in carbonateCarbonate rock
Carbonate rocks are a class of sedimentary rocks composed primarily of carbonate minerals. The two major types are limestone, which is composed of calcite or aragonite and dolostone, which is composed of the mineral dolomite .Calcite can be either dissolved by groundwater or precipitated by...
or silicate sedimentary rock
Sedimentary rock
Sedimentary rock are types of rock that are formed by the deposition of material at the Earth's surface and within bodies of water. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause mineral and/or organic particles to settle and accumulate or minerals to precipitate from a solution....
s. 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.