DOI: 10.18503/1995-2732-2023-21-1-24-31
Abstract
Problem Statement (Relevance). Alluvial gold deposits mainly have a complex structure with a significant variability in the content of the useful component and the size of gold grains in sands of the producing formation, and, therefore, their development, using conventional processing technologies focused predominantly on gold recovered by gravity with a size of over 0.5 mm, leads to large losses of gold. The known technologies for the development of deep-seated placers are not focused on the selective extraction of sands with different levels of gold content and size; therefore, they do not provide the possibility of flexible changes in process flow charts, modes and parameters of processing the mineral mass, which is not uniform in its quality. A necessary condition for the use of the selective extraction of sands and their separate processing is the identification of the exact contours of rich zones, containing gold of a higher size, for their prior extraction. Objective. The research is aimed at improving the technology for the combined development of complex-structural alluvial gold deposits by delineating rich sand zones, selecting a set of equipment to ensure their high-quality prior extraction, mining of ordinary and poor sand zones using in-situ leaching technology. Results. The paper proposes an improved development technology, which consists in identifying zones of rich sands and subsequent refinement of their contours, prior mechanical extraction of rich sands, containing a significant amount of relatively coarse gold using an extraction module, with the extraction of the rest of the rich sands using hydraulic borehole mining, and ordinary and poor areas using in-situ leaching. The extraction module is installed on the stem of the drilling rig and includes cutting elements, rods, a hydraulic drive, and a bucket. The rich sands extracted to the surface are supplied for multi-stage enrichment. The remaining main volume of the deposit is mined using in-situ leaching solutions with adaptive concentrations that provide a relatively high recovery of gold into the product solution. Conclusions. The use of the proposed combined technology will significantly reduce technological losses and increase the extraction of gold from the sands of complex-structured deep-seated placers, while reducing the unit cost of gold mining.
Keywords
producing formation, rich sands, gold recovered by gravity, fine-grained gold, extraction module, mechanical extraction, hydraulic borehole mining, in-situ leaching
For citation
Cheban A.Yu., Sekisov A.G. Combined Technology for the Development of Complex Structure Deep Gold Placers. Vestnik Magnitogorskogo Gosudarstvennogo Tekhnicheskogo Universiteta im. G.I. Nosova [Vestnik of Nosov Magnitogorsk State Technical University]. 2023, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 24-31. https://doi.org/10.18503/1995-2732-2023-21-1-24-31
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