How Does the Gold Mining Process Work?
Click on the play button above to learn about the gold mining process, from ground to refinement and, How Gold is Made.
Gold mining doesn’t happen overnight. For a mine to be fully operational, it takes years of research, planning, studies and obtaining records from the responsible public bodies. This process can be divided into the following steps.
Research and Development
The starting point is the mapping of areas of interest, carrying out the prospection of gold mines. At this time, preliminary studies and geological reconnaissance activities are carried out with specialists to assess whether there are deposits in a given region.
Feasibility and authorization
The discovery of gold is followed by studies to assess whether the benefits of extraction outweigh the necessary costs. In addition, the interested mining company needs to shape the entire project and obtain authorization from the competent public bodies in the chosen region. Therefore, it can take years to regularly start the actual operation.
Mining and production
With the legal process, feasibility and resources available, the mining company can start the operation. Gold mining involves the extraction of raw rocks and various activities to find the precious metal and make it increasingly pure. The more technology that is used in the process, the greater the chances of succeeding in this activity.
Open pit and underground mining
In gold mining, there is open pit and underground mining . As the names already say, the first refers to regions with ores on the surface, while the second requires the resource to carry out drilling and deep excavations.
Gold Refinement
It is worth mentioning that the mining company carries out a series of other activities until the golden metal is part of the bars, jewelry, electronic components, etc. One of the most important steps in this regard is refinement.
In this process, the metal reaches the industry with about 80% purity, and the role of the refiner is to eliminate the other substances. This activity, which involves the melting of the raw material and its resolidification, needs to reach the standard of 99.9% purity, which is expected for gold to be available to the consumer.
