What does a modern mine look like?

Assayers generate the data that mining companies use to locate and control mining operations. Gold, like all metals used in our daily lives, comes from mines like the one shown below. (In fact, if you trace back far enough, anything you buy or use started with raw material which was either grown or mined.) 
As in all modern open pit mines in the United States, waste (overburden) is moved aside in a design (guided by assay data) that prevents future environmental damage. Once all gold ore is mined, this mine area, like all modern Nevada mines, is, by law, shaped and then reclaimed to match or exceed the original site's bioproductivity and habitat value.

The open pit mine pictured at right opened in 1981 in the high desert of the Independence Mountains. Ore was identified by assays and hauled to the mill below. 

 Arial photo of an open pit gold mine
Photo of the processing operation (mill) supporting the mine pictured above.

Once the ore reaches a mill* like the one above, it is crushed, ground inside large machinery to a fine powder, then leached to extract the gold.

* Lower grade oxide ore is not always milled. It may only be economical to process it using heap leach technology.


 
Return to previous level of the introduction area of Tom's Library or proceed to a list of links to Nevada mining companies for more background.
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