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By Thomas F. Kerr

The La Quinua mill at the Yanacocha mine in Peru has a thickened tailings storage facility that is contained entirely within an active heap leach pad. In this respect, it is unique and unprecedented in the mining industry and provides the operator, Minera Yanacocha S.R.L. (MYRSL), with certain cost, land-use and closure efficiencies. The combined design requires that the leach ore embankments retaining the tailings provide the same high level of stability and security required of major tailings dams. Contrary to standard tailings dam construction, the leach ore in these embankments is placed in thick, uncompacted lifts so that they maintain adequate permeability for leaching. The resultant loose structure makes static and dynamic liquefaction a critical issue, and the key design principle for avoiding a liquefaction related failure is to keep the ore that is saturated or very near saturated when under leach well removed from the outer faces of the embankments and contained behind large unsaturated structural shells.

Sep 14, 2009

By Benito Perez

Newmont Akyem mine in Ghana is committed with continuous improving results. A new environment where the price varies rapidly requires of better understanding of the deposits and the gold contained in the ore. This better understanding allows the mine planners to quick adjust and fast response to economic changes for gold price. Newmont Akyem Mine has approximately 9.4 million tons of ore in the stockpiles. Mine planers are still using average grade in all stockpiles to do a mine plan. The re-handled material is blended with the prime material coming from the mine.

Sep 1, 2017

By B. Whistler

The Alpala porphyry copper-gold deposit is a recent discovery located in the Imbabura Province of northwestern Ecuador. The drilling of seventeen diamond core holes over a 900 m by 400 m area has defined a northwesterly-trending, steeply northeast-dipping dike-stock complex of diorite to quartz diorite that exceeds 1300 m in height. This intrusive complex is hosted by a sequence of andesitic volcaniclastic rocks and lavas. The host-rocks are interpreted to be part of the Paleocene to Late Eocene Macuchi Formation (BGS-CODIGEM, 1997; Cruz, 2007). The best drill intercept to date is 1312 m at 0.67 % Cu and 0.63 g/t Au from 128 m depth in CSD-15-012, which includes 576 m at 1.03 % Cu and 1.19 g/t Au.

May 1, 2008

By N. Bournas, A. Prikhodko

A new litho-structural map was derived from the airborne geophysical survey and the 3D inversions. The newly identified faulting structures are suggested to have played a key role in the gold mineralization control. Several kimberlite targets, whose magnetic response is similar to known diamantiferous kimberlite pipes occurring within the study area, were identified from the 3D inversion results. Enhanced spectrometric data imaging and their interpretation results helped detect several uranium targets occurring within the Neoproterozoic sediments and the Eburnean pegmatites of the basement rocks.

May 1, 2008

By Sabina Strmić, Fredrik Sahlström, Siv Hjorth et al

Cobalt is critical for the green energy transition, yet the mineralogical distribution and the mechanisms of concentration of Co in different types of hydrothermal ore deposits remain poorly constrained. Here we document ore mineral assemblages from the active Fåvne and Loki’s Castle seafloor massive sulfide deposits located along the Mohns Ridge in the Norwegian Sea, and determine their whole-rock and mineral chemical compositions with a special emphasis on Co.

May 10, 2023

By Ron H. Derammelaere

"The paper point out of the copper slurry pipelines in South America, providing key statistics, such as throughput, diameter, length, etc. In addition, it will present technical aspects of pipeline design that are unique tomountainous terrain, specifically: choke stations for the control of slack flow, batch hydraulics, automation and training.The pipelines listed in this paper operate successfully at availabilities in excess of 98%. Breaks and plugs can occur due to operator error, but are extremely rare. A review of cross-country slurry pipeline operations worldwide over the last 30 years shows that such a major event occurs, on average, once every five years. Under such a worstcase condition, the downtime rarely exceeds five days. Some pipelines have already been in operation over 30 years, the life span being a function of how well corrosion is kept in check."

Jul 31, 2003