The Kauldy mine is one of the subdivisions of the Almalyk Mining and Metallurgical Combine. It is here that the underground mining of gold-bearing quartz ore is carried out at a faster pace, which is shipped to the copper smelter and used as fluxes in the metallurgical process.

Every year, the mine team reports on the early fulfillment of forecast indicators. For example, by December 2, 2021, the forecast for ore mining was fulfilled by 106.6%, for its processing - by 100.2%. Indicators Based on the results of the first month of the current year, the forecast for ore mining was fulfilled by 100.1% (growth rate was 133.7%). The forecast for January was also successfully met for ore processing: by 100.2% (growth rate of 135.2%).

In the big common cause, the specialists of each section of the mine play an important role. One of them is the ore preparation section.

Ore mined underground is delivered by dump trucks first to the warehouse. Then it is sent to two-fraction crushing, where it is divided into classes depending on the needs of the copper smelter, according to the specifications.

The ore of the first class is fractions from 0 to 16 mm, the second class is fractions from 16 to 50 mm. About 285 tons of ore are crushed per day at the ore preparation site. The team of the site performs production tasks consistently. For the past year and the first month of the current year, the tasks set were fulfilled by 100%.

Ore preparation processes, including grinding and classification, play a key role in the operation of subsequent processing stages, and the quality of the finished product also depends on them.

Therefore, at the ore preparation site, in addition to the crushing department, there is also a technical control service, an assay analysis laboratory (DAL) and a site for sawing wood used to fasten adits.

As the name implies, the laboratory specialists are engaged in assay analysis, which is the main method for determining the content of gold and silver in ore. The analysis itself includes a combination of various pyro and hydrometallurgical operations, allowing quantitative isolation and concentration of precious metals without practical losses. Assay analysis consists of successive operations: sampling, its blending with special chemical reagents; crucible melting of the prepared mixture into a rough lead alloy called ‘lead bullion’; cleansing melting of lead bullion (i.e. scorifying); oxidative melting of the purified alloy (cupellation); weighing on the assay scales of the received gold-silver bead; preparing it for acid digestion; subsequent acid separation of the amount of precious metals contained in the bead after quartering; as well as washing, drying, calcining a solid gold residue, called in a compact form a gold card; and weighing on the assay scales of the received gold card.

Of course, in this complex process, modern equipment, which the laboratory is equipped with, comes to the aid of people. Including electric ovens and high-precision scales of well-known world manufacturers.

And the specialists of the technical control service of the ore preparation section systematically monitor the composition of ore samples, the percentage of gold and silver in them. This control helps to significantly increase the volume of extraction of precious metals, reducing the percentage of waste rocks.

In the general business of the ore preparation section, the work of each specialist of various professions is important. The site team is proud of its mentors, who pass on experience to young professionals.

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