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Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Muruntau gold mine


One of the most famous gold mines in the world is the Muruntau Mine, located in the northern part of the Kyzylkum desert in Navoi Rayon in Central Uzbekistan.  Every year, around two million ounces of gold are mined making it currently the highest producing gold mine in the world. The deposit was discovered in 1953, although ancient gold mines have since been revealed in the vicinity of the ore deposit. Detailed exploration took place between 1960 and 1965. Construction commenced in 1964, and mining in 1967, with the gold plant beginning operation two years later. The deposit originally contained more than 5400 tonnes (175 Moz) of gold at an open pit recovered grade of 3.4 g/t Au. 

Currently it is the largest open-pit gold mine in the world. Its length forms about 3 500 meters, and the width - about 2 700 meters and maximum  depth of the largest fracture is 600 meters which is planned to be extended beyond 1,000m. Even after decades of active gold mining, the mine's reserves form more than 1,750 tons of the precious metal.

Gold mining at Muruntau is conducted using a truck and conveyor ore transportation system. The overburden is taken to the crushing and trans hipping points using cyclic flow technology. The ore is transported using a steeply inclined  conveyor which can handle one million tonnes of ore per year (around 50,000 tonnes per day). Crushed ore is transported to the hydrometallurgical plant for refining and gold production. Gold is extracted using the heap leaching method that helps in efficient extraction of gold, even from low-grade ores. Sorption and filter-free process is used for extracting the gold. Also extracted is refined sliver and palladium by-product.

Source: https://www.mining-technology.com/projects/muruntau-gold-mine-uzbekistan/

1 comment:

  1. Prospect Generator You made such an interesting piece to read, giving every subject enlightenment for us to gain knowledge. Thanks for sharing the such information with us to read this...

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