Gold Mining and Processing in India

Gold Mining and
Processing in India
-Spandan Prasad Sahu
2001MM34
MM203 Assignment – 10/08/2021
Topics Covered
01 02 03
GOLD AND ITS PRODUCTION PROCESS OF
ORES. OF GOLD IN EXTRACTION OF
INDIA GOLD FROM ITS
ORE MINERALS.
Introduction
 Gold is a precious metal and malleable in nature.
 Majority of gold consumption is by the jewelry industry, however it is also used in
electronics and aerospace.
 Gold is also of economic importance and people invest in gold. It was historically
used as currency.
 It is recyclable.
 All of the gold that's deposited in our planet was formed during the explosions of
stars and collisions of asteroids, and eventually found its way to earth over time.
Gold and its Ores
Major ores of gold contain gold in native form.
They are of two type :
 Exogenetic (formed at the earth’s surface)

o alluvial gold - found in riverbeds, streambeds
and floodplains Pyrite
 Endogenetic (formed within the earth).

o vein and lode deposits of elemental gold in
quartzite or mixtures of quartzite and various
iron sulphide minerals( FeS2 - pyrite etc)
Quartzite
Gold and its Ores
Native gold – most common mineral of
gold; 80% of gold in earths crust
Electrum – gold - silver alloy ; 20-45%
silver
Electrum
Tellurium Minerals – calaverite (AuTe2) and

sylvanite (AuAgTe4)
Calaverit
e
Production of Gold in India
 DGML : Deccan Gold Mines Ltd., India’s first and largest
company for gold exploration.
 Production of gold are in 2018-19 : 566,000 tonnes (3%

increase from previous year)
 Average grade of gold ore produced in 2018-19: 3.44 g/t

(grams/tonnes)
Facts to ponder:
 Production of primary gold in 2018-19 : 1664 kg (1% In 1994, India produced 2 tonnes of gold
and China produced 3 tonnes of gold. As of
increase)
2018, India produced 1.6 ton of gold while
 Karnataka accounts for 99% of India’s production. Others China produced 450 tonnes of gold. 🧐
by Jharkhand.
Production of Gold in India
Companies producing gold :
HGML (Hutti, Uti and HiraBuddini Manmohan Mineral Industries Pvt.

in Raichur district, Karnataka. Public Ltd. : (Singhbhum East District,
Sector) – Hutti Gold Mines Private Jharkhand. Private Sector)
Limited
Kolar Gold Field was

closed in 2001 for
environmental and
economic reasons;
food, water and
shelter were scarce,
and production did
not justify the
investment.
Hutti Gold Mines Private Limited art
Total jewelry demand in India for Q1 2021 was
up by 39% at 102.5 tonne, compared to 73.9
tonne in Q1 2020. The value of jewelry demand
was at Rs 43,100 crore.
The huge demand of gold, mainly by jewelry

industry, in India is fulfilled by importing gold.
India is the largest importer of gold.
Exact data on gold reserves, mining centers and

Gold Mines in India prospective gold deposits haven’t been updated
by the government since 2016.
Gold deposits and prospective sites in
India
Process of Extraction of Gold in India
 Gold ore is obtained by Underground Mining.

 Ore is extracted through tunnels and shafts and transported by road for processing.
Only low-grade ore is available in India.
Ore containing gold is broken in the underground

workings by drilling and blasting.
Underground Mining
Process: Crushing
 The ore in its original form consists of big chunks like rocks.
 Rough Crushing of Ore, followed by fine crushing.
 Ore is crushed to 10mm size and stored for further treatment.
Jaw Crusher – Rough Crushing Cone Crusher – Fine Crushing

Process: Grinding
There are Two Techniques :
First Technique: Primary grinding followed by secondary
grinding for adequate communition.
 Involves one primary mill followed by three tube mills

which make up the two streams. pebbles and smaller size
balls are used as composite grinding media.
Process: Grinding
Second Technique : From another 4 streams, Knelson concentrator
is used to collect concentrate for this technique. Grinding by four
ball mills of different sizes. Large Balls are used as grinding media.
Cyclones are used in all the circuit with the mills to get required
size : 75 micron. for subsequent treatment.
Concentrate is upgraded on James table (shaker) to produce smelt-
able grade of gold.
Knelson Concentrator
Process: Grinding
Ball Mill
James Table - Shaking

Cyclone – used to separate bigger
chunks from the fine concentrate
Process: Thickening
Finely ground ore in the form of
slurry from the two streams of first
technique and 4 streams of second
technique join together in a distributor
box from which finely ground ore
slurry is fed to High Rate Thickener
for thickening purpose. Slurry subjected to Thickening
The thickened pulp (60% solid w/w) thus obtained from thickeners is subjected to
Leaching/cyanidation process.
 Thickening is necessary before leaching. If not, it will result in excessive energy cost
and reagent consumption.
Slurry- mixture of concentrate and water. Acts as medium to
transport the concentrate for further process
Slurry stored before it is subjected to further process

Process: Leaching
After the slurry went into the leaching tank, the solution of sodium cyanide is added into the first
leaching tank accurately.
This process is governed by the

Elsner Equation.
The complex of Au formed is

very stable under certain
condition.
To increase the oxygen potential of slurry, H2O2 is added in addition to compressed air. The
cyanidation or leaching process is carried out in a series of mechanically agitated agitators of
different sizes (decreasing size) so that slurry automatically flows to the next tank.
Leachate
Process: Adsorption
 The cyanide leached pulp is then fed to two Carbon-in Pulp (CIP) plants. The objective of CIP
plant is to absorb the dissolved gold in activated carbon from the solution. Carbon is the best
choice due to its own micro-porous structure.
CIP Tank
Flowchart : The process from leaching to
desorption
Process: Desorption and Electrowinning
The gold-loaded carbon is removed from the CIP plant periodically, subjected to acid and alkaline
wash and then eluted in four elution columns with 1.0% NaOH and 0.1% NaCN solution at 95 ○C
for a period of 60 hours.
The solution is then passed through

four electrowinning cells in which
gold is deposited on steel wool
cathodes. The gold loaded steel
wool cathodes are manually
removed periodically, subjected to
acid digestion, drying and smelting
to obtain bullion buttons.
Electrowinning machinery
Process: Smelting Ingots Slag Gold Metal
 Smelting gold is accomplished by using high

pressure, heat and various chemicals to
breakdown the ore and melt the gold to
separate it from the impurities. The gold must
be heated to an excess of 1046 ○C or 2150 ○F.
 The flux added during smelting varies with the Smelting Schematic
impurity present : eg.: Borax, Soda Ash,

Fluorspar, Manganese Dioxide, Boric acid etc.
The process is carried by highly skilled men, who very accurately separate
the slag from the molten gold. It produces around 85-97% pure gold
depending upon the method used and impurities in the ore. For higher
purities, it is refined further.
Stamping of Bullion
Casting the molten gold to bullion
The bullion buttons thus obtained from table concentrate and steel wool
are cast into bullion bars weighing 4 to 11 kg and then despatched for
sales.
Other methods to produce Gold in India
 Gold is sometimes recovered from the pregnant (Simple gold bearing solution) solutions by adding zinc to
form soluble zinc cyanide and precipitate of gold & silver. The pregnant solution can also be passed
through activated carbon which absorbs dissolved gold. Gold from either process is cast into bars, bullion
and dore (when it contains silver), which must be further refined to remove impurities, such as mercury,
arsenic and copper. Some ores cannot be treated by cyanide processing as gold in them is in small
inclusions or even by solid solutions in minerals, such as pyrite. This gold is generally recovered by
roasting which converts pyrite into porous iron oxides containing small grains of gold that can be
dissolved by cyanide.
Few more companies producing Gold
Birla Copper Complex of Hindalco Industries Ltd situated at Dahej, district Bharuch, Gujarat has
an installed capacity of 15 tpy for gold recovery from imported copper concentrates.
 HCL which recovers by-product secondary gold from indigenous copper ores at its ICC plant in
Jharkhand has an installed capacity of 698 kg per annum gold recovery plant. This plant, however,
did not report production since 2007-08.
NMDC has secured a gold mining lease in Bulyangombe area in Tanzania.
Uses of Gold
References
 https://www.britannica.com/technology/mining#ref622349
 https://ibm.gov.in/writereaddata/files/10142020121942Gold_2019_AR.pdf
 https://ibm.gov.in/writereaddata/files/05282015123050gold_2013.pdf
 https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Distribution-map-of-gold-occurrences-in-India
-Source_fig1_270280429
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUXXL0Ef5D0
 http://59.90.138.130/ - HGML
Thank You for Precious just like gold Time
Fun Fact😋
The Olympics Gold medal
weighs 556 gms and it is
plated with 6 gms of gold

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Gold Mining and

 Exogenetic (formed at the earth’s surface)

 Endogenetic (formed within the earth).

Tellurium Minerals – calaverite (AuTe2) and

 Production of gold are in 2018-19 : 566,000 tonnes (3%

 Average grade of gold ore produced in 2018-19: 3.44 g/t

HGML (Hutti, Uti and HiraBuddini Manmohan Mineral Industries Pvt.

Kolar Gold Field was

The huge demand of gold, mainly by jewelry

India is the largest importer of gold.

Exact data on gold reserves, mining centers and

 Gold ore is obtained by Underground Mining.

Only low-grade ore is available in India.

Ore containing gold is broken in the underground

Jaw Crusher – Rough Crushing Cone Crusher – Fine Crushing

 Involves one primary mill followed by three tube mills

James Table - Shaking

Slurry stored before it is subjected to further process

This process is governed by the

The complex of Au formed is

The solution is then passed through

 Smelting gold is accomplished by using high

impurity present : eg.: Borax, Soda Ash,

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