niaz
PDF THINK TANK: CONSULTANT
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Main reason why intelligent persons such as members of this forum can consider Gold which is present in the form of traces in the Copper ore at Reko diq as “reserves of Gold” for Pakistan because they have no idea as to how gold from Reko diq would be extracted.
I happened to visit Indeni Petroleum Refinery at Ndola Zambia for negotiating Reconstituted Crude oil to the refinery in 1990’s. Ndola is located very near the Zambian Copper belt. I managed to visit Bwana Mkubwa open cast Copper mine as well as Mopani Copper mine at Kitwe to see copper mining in actual operation.
I seek your indulgence to let me very briefly describe how it is done.
Most Copper mines are a combination of open pit (about I kilometre wide) & underground mining. They say that open pit at Utah Copper mines is so large that it is visible from space.
Very large quantities of the rock are crushed and taken by a conveyor belt to the nearby processing plant where rock is further crushed and ground to almost a powder. Pulverized ore is then mixed with water to form slurry. Some pine oil and a chemical Floatation Reagent (Amyl xanthate?) are added and air passed thru it.
During Froth Floatation less dense oil covered Copper Sulphide particles are carried to the top in the foam and are skimmed off. This way copper concentration from less than 1% to about 20 to 30 % is achieved. The concentrate is subsequently de-watered and roasted to remove Sulphur & other volatile elements such as Arsenic before being sold or used as Smelter feed.
Copper Smelter is an oxygen flash furnace where limestone, sand, and fresh copper ore concentrate is blown into the furnace and heated to temperature of about 1100C. Molten Copper Sulphide, called Copper Matte, is run into a converter furnace, where air containing oxygen is blown through the Copper Matte to oxidize the sulphide ions to sulphur dioxide. At the same time some of the sulphide ions reduce the Copper ions to impure Blister Copper metal. This is the main step in Copper production. Blister Copper is to pure Copper what ‘Pig Iron’ is to steel
Final step is the conversion of the impure Copper to pure Copper. This is done by electrolysis where the impure Copper is made into the anode electrode and the pure copper is formed at the cathode electrode. The Copper electrodes are immersed in a solution of Sulphuric acid and Copper Sulphate. Oxidation occurs at the anode; therefore Copper metal is converted to Copper ions with the release of two electrons. At the cathode the opposite reaction occurs: Copper ions are joined with two electrons to form Copper metal called cathode Copper.
During the transformation of Copper metal into copper ions and back to Copper metal, the impurities drop to the bottom of the electrolysis cell. Some of the impurities are Gold, Silver, Nickel, Platinum etc. which are recovered for sale. Other main bye product of Copper production is Sulphur.
In case of Reko diq, Gold content is 0.22g/ton. Assuming production of 10,000 tons of Copper per year, one needs to process about 2.5-million tons of ore. This would yield about 17,700 ounces of gold. I ton of gold has 29,166.67 troy ounces (1 troy ounce equals 31.1 grams) per year; meaning total Gold production would be about 0.606 tons per year.
It would take Reko diq mine about 2,000 years to produce 1275.75 tons of Gold.
We are very far from exploiting Reko diq deposits. Investment of as much $3 to 4-billion may be needed before even one once of gold is produce and there are no indications that it would be any time soon.
Pray tell me, how can we assume 1, 275.75 tons of Reko diq gold potential as our Gold reserve?????
I happened to visit Indeni Petroleum Refinery at Ndola Zambia for negotiating Reconstituted Crude oil to the refinery in 1990’s. Ndola is located very near the Zambian Copper belt. I managed to visit Bwana Mkubwa open cast Copper mine as well as Mopani Copper mine at Kitwe to see copper mining in actual operation.
I seek your indulgence to let me very briefly describe how it is done.
Most Copper mines are a combination of open pit (about I kilometre wide) & underground mining. They say that open pit at Utah Copper mines is so large that it is visible from space.
Very large quantities of the rock are crushed and taken by a conveyor belt to the nearby processing plant where rock is further crushed and ground to almost a powder. Pulverized ore is then mixed with water to form slurry. Some pine oil and a chemical Floatation Reagent (Amyl xanthate?) are added and air passed thru it.
During Froth Floatation less dense oil covered Copper Sulphide particles are carried to the top in the foam and are skimmed off. This way copper concentration from less than 1% to about 20 to 30 % is achieved. The concentrate is subsequently de-watered and roasted to remove Sulphur & other volatile elements such as Arsenic before being sold or used as Smelter feed.
Copper Smelter is an oxygen flash furnace where limestone, sand, and fresh copper ore concentrate is blown into the furnace and heated to temperature of about 1100C. Molten Copper Sulphide, called Copper Matte, is run into a converter furnace, where air containing oxygen is blown through the Copper Matte to oxidize the sulphide ions to sulphur dioxide. At the same time some of the sulphide ions reduce the Copper ions to impure Blister Copper metal. This is the main step in Copper production. Blister Copper is to pure Copper what ‘Pig Iron’ is to steel
Final step is the conversion of the impure Copper to pure Copper. This is done by electrolysis where the impure Copper is made into the anode electrode and the pure copper is formed at the cathode electrode. The Copper electrodes are immersed in a solution of Sulphuric acid and Copper Sulphate. Oxidation occurs at the anode; therefore Copper metal is converted to Copper ions with the release of two electrons. At the cathode the opposite reaction occurs: Copper ions are joined with two electrons to form Copper metal called cathode Copper.
During the transformation of Copper metal into copper ions and back to Copper metal, the impurities drop to the bottom of the electrolysis cell. Some of the impurities are Gold, Silver, Nickel, Platinum etc. which are recovered for sale. Other main bye product of Copper production is Sulphur.
In case of Reko diq, Gold content is 0.22g/ton. Assuming production of 10,000 tons of Copper per year, one needs to process about 2.5-million tons of ore. This would yield about 17,700 ounces of gold. I ton of gold has 29,166.67 troy ounces (1 troy ounce equals 31.1 grams) per year; meaning total Gold production would be about 0.606 tons per year.
It would take Reko diq mine about 2,000 years to produce 1275.75 tons of Gold.
We are very far from exploiting Reko diq deposits. Investment of as much $3 to 4-billion may be needed before even one once of gold is produce and there are no indications that it would be any time soon.
Pray tell me, how can we assume 1, 275.75 tons of Reko diq gold potential as our Gold reserve?????
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so where did all the gold went on? We are talking about the reserves of the governments not the people dude.
