Comprehensive Gold Mining & Processing Workflow Report

1. Introduction

This report provides an in-depth, step-by-step breakdown of the gold mining and processing workflow as depicted in the Graphviz diagram. The process is designed for maximum gold recovery, operational efficiency, and environmental responsibility, avoiding harmful chemicals like mercury and cyanide.

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2. Detailed Process Breakdown

2.1 Ore Deposit

Gold-bearing ore deposits are concentrations of rock that contain commercially viable amounts of gold, often accompanied by other valuable minerals like silver or mercury, within geological structures such as veins, lodes, placers, or disseminated deposits formed through processes including hydrothermal activity, sedimentation, and metamorphism.

• Description: The gold-bearing rock formation where mining begins.
• Key Details:
  • Gold is embedded in quartz veins or alluvial deposits.
  • Miners identify high-grade zones through sampling and geological surveys.
  • Ore is extracted manually or with light machinery, depending on scale.

2.2 Excavation to Surface

Gold-bearing ore deposits can be excavated depending on the depth and accessibility of the矿体; significant underground mining utilizes shaft sinking to create deep access tunnels from which miners retrieve ores via vertical or inclined passages. For near-surface deposits where mineralization occurs close to the earth’s surface, open-pit mining is employed by removing layers of overburden rock stepwise, accessing and extracting ore as benches are worked upwards. In cases requiring extensive removal without deep excavation shafts or large pits, surface digging methods such as plowing or dredging may be applied in shallower areas where loose topsoil contains accessible gold-bearing materials.

• Description: The process of bringing ore from underground to the surface.
• Key Details:
  • Local miners operate small-scale shafts or open pits.
  • Ore is manually dug, blasted, or scraped out.
  • Miners follow safety protocols to prevent tunnel collapses.
  • Ore is loaded into buckets or carts for transport.

2.3 Transport of Ores

The transportation of bulky, gold-bearing ore deposits from their remote extraction sites to mineral processing facilities is critically important due to the substantial logistical challenges and significant economic costs associated with handling such large volumes of material; efficient movement via specialized infrastructure like rail or road ensures a steady supply reaching the processing plant in timely intervals, which is essential for maintaining continuous operations and maximizing overall production output.

• Description: Moving ore from mining sites to the processing plant.
• Key Details:
  • Small trucks, motorcycles, or conveyor belts transport ore.
  • For remote areas, manual carrying or animal transport may be used.
  • Ore is weighed and recorded upon arrival at the processing site.

2.4 Mineral Processing Site

A mineral processing site for primary crushing of gold-bearing ores involves large machinery like jaw or cone crushers that break down the mined ore into smaller pieces before introducing it to a grinding circuit (secondary milling), where rod mills or ball mills further reduce particle size to liberate trapped gold particles. This finely ground material is then processed through various fine gold recovery equipment, such as jigs, shaking tables, spirals, or centrifugal concentrators that effectively separate and recover the microscopic gold from waste tailings based on density differences.

• Description: The central hub where ore is transformed into gold.
• Key Details:
  • Two Business Models:
    1. Fee-Based Processing: Miners pay a fee to have their ore processed.
    2. Direct Purchase: The site buys raw ore from miners.
  • Tailings Reprocessing: Leftover waste (tailings) is re-milled for residual gold.

2.5 Rock Feeder

A rock feeder, positioned before a jaw crusher in the crushing circuit, serves as an essential component designed to regulate and control the flow of large chunks or ROM (Run-of-Mine) rocks into the crusher’s inlet; it typically consists of vibrating grizzly bars with adjustable openings or fixed pan feeders that help pre-screen material by allowing smaller fragments to bypass while directing larger stones towards the jaw crusher for effective size reduction, thereby ensuring consistent performance and preventing overloading of downstream equipment.

• Description: A mechanized hopper that regulates ore flow into the crusher.
• Key Details:
  • Prevents jamming in the jaw crusher by controlling feed rate.
  • Uses vibration or conveyor belts to ensure steady material flow.
  • Helps maintain consistent processing speed.

2.6 Jaw Crusher

A jaw crusher is a heavy-duty, industrial-sized machine designed to perform primary crushing of various stone materials and ores by applying compressive force through the interaction between two plates – one fixed (jaw) and one movable (toggle), which repeatedly close on each other as material fed into them gets crushed against the stationary plate.

• Description: Primary crushing machine that breaks large rocks into smaller pieces.
• Key Details:
  • Uses compressive force from two metal plates (jaws).
  • Reduces rocks from ~12 inches to ~2 inches in size.
  • Critical for liberating gold from hard rock before milling.

2.7 Rock Impact Mills (#1 & #2)

Rock Impact Mills are mechanical devices designed primarily to fracture and pulverize ore aggregates through high-energy collisions, which is the essential first step in liberation processes; they achieve this by utilizing rapidly moving hammers or jaws that repeatedly strike the material being processed. In a context where their application precedes subsequent gold recovery stages such as gravitational processing (e.g., jigs or spirals), these impact mills are specifically employed to reduce ore size effectively, thereby liberating finer particles of gold embedded within larger rock fragments for efficient separation through density-based methods in which gravity aids the sedimentation and stratification according to particle weight.

• Description: Secondary grinding units that pulverize crushed rock into fine powder.
• Key Details:
  • Uses high-speed hammers to smash rocks into sand-like consistency.
  • No mercury is used—gold is liberated purely through mechanical force.
  • Operates in parallel for higher throughput.

2.8 Fine Gold Recovery Sluices (#1 & #2)

SYOGM Fine Gold Recovery Sluices are capable of effectively capturing fine gold particles as small as 5 microns, a claim that has received both scientific validation through rigorous testing at the esteemed University of British Columbia and the University of Uppsala in Sweden, and practical confirmation across numerous countries where they have consistently demonstrated superiority over alternative methods, serving as the optimal pre-leach solution for ores prior to any leaching processes.

• Description: Gravity-based separation systems that capture gold particles.
• Key Details:
  • Uses riffles, mats, and water flow to trap gold.
  • Recovers gold as fine as 5 microns (extremely small particles).
  • Multiple methods (e.g., vortex matting, expanded metal) ensure high recovery rates.

2.9 Gold Concentrate

Gold concentrates resulting from the process of sluicing are dense, fine-grained mixtures primarily composed of liberated gold particles that have been recovered and separated from lighter waste materials like sand, silt, and rock fragments by washing suspension in a water-filled trough or slurry box. As mineral-rich material is added to the moving water after being crushed into small pieces through milling processes beforehand which increases surface area exposure for better recovery efficiency this dense concentrate forms as heavier particles settle out of solution while lighter impurities are washed away downstream, effectively capturing most of the valuable gold within it.

• Description: The gold-rich material extracted from sluices.
• Key Details:
  • Contains gold + black sand (magnetite, hematite).
  • Sent to the Concentrate Room for final refining.
  • Further upgraded using sluices, panning, and fine gold recovery methods.

2.10 Concentrate Room

A concentrator room serves as a specialized facility dedicated to storing, managing, and processing concentrated gold ore or material until it reaches its final purified form ready for market sale or further refinement beyond initial concentration stages.

• Description: Secure facility for final gold extraction and refining.
• Key Details:
  • Upgrading Process:
    • Uses fine gold recovery methods to remove iron sands.
    • Gold panning for manual concentration.
    • Fine gold recovery equipment for fine-tuning purity.
  • Smelting & Assaying:
    • Gold is melted into bars.
    • Fire assay, density scale or XRF determines purity (e.g., 22K, 24K).
  • Security Measures:
    • 24/7 CCTV surveillance.
    • Access restricted to authorized personnel.
    • Production logs track every gram of gold.

2.11 Final Gold & Cash Income

Following the processing of gold concentrate, the resulting gold becomes the definitive end-product; at this stage, it can undergo melting to transition into a pure metallic form suitable for sale in various markets where its value as refined bullion or material for further manufacturing awaits.

• Description: The end product, ready for sale.
• Key Details:
  • Sold to bullion dealers, jewelers, or central banks.
  • Revenue is reinvested into operations or distributed to miners.

2.12 Concentrate Buckets

Concentrate buckets facilitate managing ores for inspection, enabling effective recovery of remaining materials from them; this process involves carefully handling these containers so that their contents can be thoroughly examined in order to retrieve as much material as possible.

• Description: Storage for leftover concentrates.
• Key Details:
  • No waste policy: Even “spent” material is rechecked.
  • Periodically reprocessed to extract residual gold.

2.13 Tailings (Waste Material)

Tailings remain after the primary processing of gold ore processing and can be effectively treated without cyanide while using Jin Chan leaching or other environmentally friendlya lternatives.

• Description: Leftover slurry after gold extraction.
• Key Details:
  • Still contains 20-30% of unrecovered gold.
  • Sent to leaching tanks for eco-friendly extraction.

2.14 Leaching Tanks

Leaching tanks, utilized in the post-primary-stage mineral processing of tailings, involve collecting and treating finely ground material with specific reagents or solutions (such as cyanide or acid) within an enclosed tank system designed to maximize dissolution efficiency; these tanks facilitate large-scale chemical leach reactions by ensuring optimal contact between the lixiviant solution and valuable metal-bearing minerals present in the tailings, allowing for effective extraction of metals like gold or copper before solid waste settles out while clarified pregnant liquor containing dissolved target elements is separated for further processing.

• Description: Chemical-free gold recovery from tailings.
• Key Details:
  • Uses non-cyanide lixiviants (e.g., Jin Chan, thiosulfate, glycine).
  • Safer for workers & environment than traditional cyanide.
  • Extracts remaining microscopic gold missed by sluices.

2.15 Dump Site

A dump site, specifically in the context of post-processing tailings from gold-bearing ores, refers to a designated area where the waste materials—comprising mostly crushed rock debris mixed with residual mining by-products—that remain after extracting valuable minerals like gold through various processing methods such as milling or smelting—are discarded.

• Description: Final disposal area for processed waste.
• Key Details:
  • Located in already excavated pits to minimize land impact.
  • No toxic chemicals are present in the waste.

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3. Key Advantages of This System

✔ Mercury-Free & Cyanide-Free – Uses mechanical and eco-friendly leaching. ✔ High Recovery Rate – Captures gold down to 5 microns. ✔ Secure & Transparent – Strict controls prevent gold theft. ✔ Sustainable – Minimizes waste through tailings reprocessing.

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4. Conclusion

This gold processing system is efficient, secure, and environmentally responsible. By combining mechanical crushing, gravity separation, and advanced leaching, it maximizes gold recovery while ensuring worker safety and minimal ecological impact. The Concentrate Room serves as the final checkpoint, guaranteeing that every possible gram of gold is extracted and accounted for before reaching the market.

Related pages

• SYOGM Hard Rock Mineral Processing Level #1 (German)