Granny-Smith-Goldmine
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The Granny Smith gold mine is located 650 km north-east of Perth and 23 km south of Laverton, Western Australia, Australia. The mining industry is located next to Mount Weld, a deposit of rare earths.
Since early 2008, Barrick Gold operates the gold mine as part of its Yilgarn South operation with the Lawler Goldmine and Darlot - Centenary Gold Mine. The three gold mines together produced 372,000 ounces of gold in 2011.
History
The gold deposit Granny Smith in 1979 by RL Smith discovered a prospector who found gold appears over on a hill. Construction of the plant began in the late 1980s. First, the mining industry was owned by Delta Gold, who renamed in February 2002 Auriongold. Auriongold was taken over in 2003 by Placer Dome, until finally the global mining company, Barrick Gold took over in March 2006.
A portion of the ore the Wallaby deposit, which is located about 10 km to the west, was processed in the Granny Smith Mill. In February 2009, agreed and Barrick Gold Crescent Gold, which operates the Laverton Gold Mine that their funded ore is ground in the installation of Granny Smith gold mill.
Geology
The gold deposit is located in a corridor extending to the north, in the three mineralization occurred, known as Granny, Windich and Goanna mineralization.
A granitic intrusion took place in the West, metavolcanics and metasedimentary rocks lie to the west. In the south of Windisch Creek granodiorite occur. In the center and in the north there are ruins rocks. Silt and shale cover banded iron- bearing rocks and tuff in the mineralization in the area of Windich Creek. In the north and east, close to the Granny mineralization, there is a layer of iron-rich greywacke, have penetrated into the other rocks. The Goanna mineralization corresponds to the Granny.
Landscape
Situated approximately 410 meters above sea mining area is flat and is dominated by two hills with banded iron-bearing rock. The larger hill rises in the west to 465 meters above sea level and the smaller at 435 meters in the south of Windisch Creeks. This is filled only during heavy rainfall, mostly in summer with water. The groundwater in mining area is salty and rose in the direction of 10 km south past Lake Carvey.
The vegetation is sparse. It is an open bush land, covered mostly with Mulgabüschen. The annual rainfall is 230 mm, mainly falling from the more than half of January to June.
Mine operation and environmental
The plant on the mine operates a crushing plant of Erzgesteins and wins the gold in a carbon in leach operation. The processing of the rock is carried out in this method, after comminution of the rock, flotation and cyanidation involving activated carbon.
Barrick Gold emphasizes that it controls a safe procedure in the handling of cyanide. In the process of cyanide leaching of gold is chemically bound in highly toxic leachates. After filtration and precipitation occurs brown slurry, from which, after washing and drying, by reduction to unrefined gold. This process produces hydrogen cyanide and cyanides, which may escape into the environment in spite of recycling of the liquor. This may, inter alia, happen by accident, leaks and disasters. All materials incurred in this process are toxic. Although these are easily decomposed and degraded in nature, yet the resulting large slag heaps and cyanide dust may be distributed in an uncontrolled manner by wind and water, uncontrolled discharge of toxic substances into the environment and cause serious ecological damage.
Remarkably, there are considerations on disused gold mine site of Granny Smith to operate fish farming of trout and barramundi. The salinity of the water increases the closer the mine site is located at Lake Carey.
Gold production
Numbers of gold production of the Granny Smith Gold Mine: