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/
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