Ore forming processes

Question 1

What is the distribution of gold deposits?

Answer 1

Unequal

Question 2

What is the origin of gold and what are deposits like?

Answer 2

Igenous and concentrated in weathering and sedimentary basins

Question 3

How does gold being a soft mineral affect is deposits?

Answer 3

Malleable, easily isolated and fragmented from host rock (reason for being found in placer deposits)

Question 4

What is the potential lifespan of gold?

Answer 4

> 30yrs

Question 5

What are the trends in gold prices?

Answer 5

Gold price historically stable with slow rates of increase, rare drops
Less affected by market volatility than stock and
shares
Price increase when geopolitical uncertainty

Question 6

How long has hard rock mining been taking place in the US?

Answer 6

100yrs

Question 7

What does the US EPA suggest is the effect on water surrodung old gold mines?

Answer 7

estimates contributed to contamination of 40% of
country’s rivers and 50% of all lakes

Question 8

What is the problem with the US trying to remidiate abandoned gold mines?

Answer 8

Original companies no longer exist no down to local and national government so little to no funding

Question 9

What is artisinal mining?

Answer 9

mineral extraction by individuals, cooperatives, or small companies with minimal capital investment and with much use of manual labour

Question 10

What is industrial scale gold mining like?

Answer 10

Large scale hard rock extraction
Large scale placer deposit surface extraction from fluvio-glacial sand and gravel deposits
Large scale dredging from nearshore ocean settings following old river systems from last glacial maximum
sourced from gold bearing source rocks

Question 11

When might large gold companies use artisinal?

Answer 11

for site survey, the artisinal say where the gold they find is so big comapnies know where to do deep mining

Question 12

What is the sustainability of gold like?

Answer 12

Finite resource, but as commodity becomes rarer marginal reserves worked and exploration increases to new site

Question 13

What are most artisinal gold mine deposits like?

Answer 13

placer

Question 14

What bonus to large companies get by using artisinal companies to survey an area?

Answer 14

Use artisinal as propectors to give a likely value for the site which they can show to shareholders and increase stock price and make profit without rick of mining losses

Question 15

What are blood diamonds with countries they are commonly from?

Answer 15

Diamonds mined in a war zone and sold to finance insurgency and invading armies

Liberia, Angola, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone

Question 16

What problem is associated with trying to prevent blood diamonds?

Answer 16

by the time they are cleaned and have made it to diamond market it is hard to tell where they are from

Question 17

WHat legislation is in place to reduce blood diamonds?

Answer 17

Kimberley Process Certification-Scheme (2000)
World Diamond Council (2001)

Question 18

What is the purpose of the kimberley process sertification scheme?

Answer 18

Resolution to strengthen the diamond
industry’s ability to block sales of conflict
diamonds

Question 19

What is the purpose of the world diamond council?

Answer 19

Certification of diamonds source to confirm not from conflict zones

Question 20

Why has cobalt mining increased?

Answer 20

To match the need of consumer goods and electric vehicles boom for batteries

Question 21

Where is the majority of cobalt mining and majority of refining?

Answer 21

Mining - 75% DRC
Refining - 70% China

Question 22

How is cobalt acquired?

Answer 22

Cobalt ores not usually mined outright - often recovered as a by-product of mining iron, nickel, copper, silver, manganese, zinc and arsenic

Question 23

What is the processing of cobalt like?

Answer 23

Complex to extract and concentrate from the ores

Question 24

How is the landscape affected by cobalt mining?

Answer 24

Loss of vegetation
Poor air quality (toxic)
Waste pollution leaching into rivers water sources
Decreased crop yields

Question 25

What are the health and social impacts of cobalt mining?

Answer 25

Increases in violence and substance abuse
loss of communal lands
Food and health insecurities
Physical and mental health challenges

Question 26

What is the problem with artisinal mining of cobalt?

Answer 26

Safety as mining done on periphery of large mines and using child labour and companies want to avoid but hard once in the trade

Question 27

What is it thought can be done to help remidiation of DRC mines?

Answer 27

Consumer pays (increasing price a little with tax)