Gold mineralization within the Witwatersrand Basin, South Africa: evidence for a modified placer origin, and the role of the Vredefort impact event Author(s) C. L. Hayward C. L. Hayward 1. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EQ, UK [email protected] 2. Impact Cratering Research Group, School …
The advent of the cyanide process is credited with reviving the failing Witwatersrand gold mining industry in 1890 when the mined ore transitioned from oxidized to sulphidic, with associated copper, lead, iron, and zinc sulphides which prevented effective recovery using amalgamation, the method used on the Witwatersrand prior to cyanidation ...
The rocks actually occupy a much larger area; much of the Witwatersrand System is covered by later deposits, and the subsurface areal extent of Witwatersrand rocks has been delimited by exploratory geophysical and drilling studies because the Witwatersrand is of great economic importance owing to its valuable deposits of gold and uranium. In ...
Abstract. Descriptions of the Witwatersrand goldfields have invoked superlatives around themes including great wealth, huge depths, giant mines and …
The Witwatersrand Basin in South Africa is one of the best-preserved records of fluvial sedimentation on an Archaean continent 1.The basin hosts the worlds biggest gold resource in thin pebble ...
Almost 40% of all gold mined during recorded history has been recovered over the past 120 years from a single ore province: the Witwatersrand Basin in South Africa. Today, the gold-mining industry in the Witwatersrand has passed its maturity, but it is set to remain the world's leading gold producer. Estimated resources in the province …
The decline was mainly due to an industrial strike and the restructuring process. South Deep gold mine geology, reserves and resources. The South Deep mine is located in the Far West Rand …
The future of the Witwatersrand gold mines. This financial, social and political squeeze has been going on for many years now and this is reflected in South Africa steadily shrinking share of the world gold production from a dominant 70% in the 1960s down to just 7% in 2011. So do the South African Witwatersrand gold fields have a …
The Witwatersrand gold fields of South Africa account for more than a third of the world's total gold production since mining started there in 1886: 48,000 t Au. ... Challenges still facing the placer models include regional alteration, structural control on gold, the chemical process of gold remobilization, and the poor match with modern …
The origin of the gold mineralization in the Witwaterstrand basin of South Africa—the largest known gold province—has been controversial for decades, with arguments favouring detrital1,2 ...
The Witwatersrand Basin (Fig. 1.1) is the world's largest gold resource and South Africa has historically been one of the major gold producers in the world. Local gold production peaked in 1970 at approximately one million kilograms of gold and this helped mining to be a major contributor to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at the time.
RE-PROCESSING GOLD TAILINGS IN SOUTH AFRICA CHRISTOPHER A. FLEMING, JAMES A. BROWN - SGS AND MARIUS BOTHA ABSTRACT The technical and economic feasibility or re-processing hundreds of millions of tons of tailings in a number of historic gold tailings dams in the Witwatersrand area of South Africa is being investigated. The …
The Witwatersrand Basin comprises a 6,000 metre thick sequence called the Witwatersrand Supergroup, which consists of predominantly detrital sedimentary rocks interspersed sporadically with auriferous and uraniferous quartz pebble conglomerates, termed reefs, especially in the upper parts of the succession classified as the Central …
The Witwatersrand gold formed by the optimization of a set of processes found in other gold provinces, not by unique processes unrepresented elsewhere. A …
After its discovery in 1886 and further discoveries in the 1930s and 1940s, the Witwatersrand dominated world gold peaking at 1000 t Au production in 1970. There has been a steady production decline since 1970, and, although the trend is clear in hindsight, few people predicted the seriousness of the fall in production or the grave situation of ...
The origin of Witwatersrand gold can be explained by metamorphic devolatilisation to generate auriferous fluids beneath and outside the Witwatersrand …
The Witwatersrand gold deposit is the largest in the world. Thermodynamic calculations show that such rich accumulations of gold could be linked to abundant …
Two major theories-the placer model and the hydrothermal model-attempt to account for the origin of gold in the Witwatersrand basin. The placer model holds that …
Witwatersrand, ridge of gold-bearing rock mostly in Gauteng Province, South Africa.Its name means "Ridge of White Waters, in Afrikaans."The highland, which forms the watershed between the Vaal and Limpopo rivers, is about 100 km long and 37 km wide; its average elevation is about 1,700 meters. Its rich gold deposits, occurring in …
The results of this survey are shown on an excellent map (Geological Map of the Witwatersrand Gold Field, 3 sheets, 1917) on the scale of 1 to 5000, or almost an inch to the mile.
In 1852, the English prospector J.H. Davis discovered the first gold in the Witwatersrand, leading to the South African gold rush and the discovery of much more gold deposits within the basin.
The Witwatersrand Basin Project (WBP) is set to transform West Wits into a long-term gold producer. ... Gold produced: 924,000oz Steady-State production: 70,000oz p/a (9 years) Life-of-Mine: 18 years. AISC Life-of-Mine : US$977/oz AISC Steady-State: US$871/oz ... which include a process facility, tailings storage facility and shafts and …
Since the 1886 discovery of gold in the Central Basin, 40,000 metric tons — 30 percent of the gold in the world — have been extracted from the mines of the Witwatersrand, which is why the South African currency is also named the Rand. The two deepest mines in the world are found in the Witwatersrand.
2 to begin mass production of gold. While some of these miners were already in South Africa at work on the diamond fields of Kimberley or copper mines in the Northern Cape, they mostly
The Witwatersrand Basin: (A) location of Witwatersrand gold province showing distribution of goldfields regions, Witwatersrand Supergroup, Dominion Group, Mesoarchean granitoid domes and Archean ...
Impact of the Discovery of Gold in the Witwatersrand: The discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand occurred more than a decade after the discovery of diamond in Kimberley in 1870. ... All of the colonies that participated in this process were considered self-governing territories. Among the major debates at this convention was the question …
In the process of making the loop the erupting volcanoes of the hotspot of course built a mountain range all along the loop. This captured an inland sea within the loop, with lava containing gold and uranium all around the edges. ... The miracle for gold in the Witwatersrand Basin was that the next hotspot followed almost exactly the same …
Its rich gold deposits, occurring in conglomerate beds known as reefs, were discovered in 1886. A heavy in-migration of miners followed, and the city of Johannesburg grew near …
The gold mining operation stage represents the productive life of a gold mine, during which ore is extracted and processed into gold. Processing gold involves transforming rock and ore into a metallic alloy of substantial purity – known …
In 1852, the English prospector J.H. Davis discovered the first gold in the Witwatersrand, leading to the South African gold rush and the discovery of much more gold deposits within the basin.
At a first glance, the Witwatersrand basin, the largest known gold resource on our planet, is not automatically related to ocean research. However, in its 3 billion years old geological history, the Witwatersrand basin in South Africa has been covered by seawater, but experienced also episodes of drying out, flooding and erosion by rivers and the repeated …
in thin pebble beds, but the process for gold enrichment is debated2–5. Mechanical accumulation of gold particles from ... the land surface during accumulation of the Witwatersrand gold, driving ...
Witwatersrand, ridge of gold-bearing rock mostly in Gauteng province, South Africa.Its name means "Ridge of White Waters." The highland, which forms the watershed between the Vaal and Limpopo rivers, is about 62 miles (100 km) long and 23 miles (37 km) wide; its average elevation is about 5,600 feet (1,700 metres). Its rich gold deposits, occurring in …
South Africa - Gold Mining, Economy, History: Prospectors established in 1886 the existence of a belt of gold-bearing reefs 40 miles (60 km) wide centered on present-day Johannesburg. The rapid growth of the gold-mining industry intensified processes started by the diamond boom: immigration, urbanization, capital investment, …
