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Handbook of gold exploration and evaluation

E Macdonald, Consultant, Australia

Woodhead Publishing Series in Metals and Surface Engineering No. 19

 - covers the nature and history of gold
 - addresses problems with regard to the framework in which gold resources are explored, developed and exploited
 - discusses topics including the geology of gold ore deposits, metallurgical processes and design, evaluation, risk and feasibility
 - a standard reference on alluvial gold deposits, exploration and mining

Designed for geologists and engineers engaged specifically in the search for gold deposits of all types and as a reference for academics in higher schools of learning, Handbook of gold exploration and evaluation provides principles and detailed explanations that underpin the correct interpretation of day-to-day experience in the field. Problems are addressed with regard to the analysis, interpretation and understanding of the general framework within which both primary and secondary gold resources are explored, developed and exploited.

Handbook of gold exploration and evaluation covers a comprehensive range of topics including the nature and history of gold, geology of gold ore deposits, gold deposition in the weathering environment, sedimentation and detrital gold, gold exploration, lateritic and placer gold sampling, mine planning and practise for shallow deposits, metallurgical processes and design, and evaluation, risk and feasibility.

ISBN 1 84569 175 X
ISBN-13: 978 1 84569 175 2
February 2007
664 pages  234 x 156mm  hardback  
£210.00 / US$355.00 / €250.00

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About the author

Eoin H Macdonald ME, FIEAust CP Eng has an international career spanning 65 years as a consulting mining engineer and is highly regarded for his previously published work on alluvial mining technology. As Australian Special Advisor to CCOP (Committee for Co-ordination of Joint Prospecting for Mineral Resources in Asian Offshore Areas) in the ESCAP (Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific) programme of the United Nations Development Programme, he cooperated with Special Advisors from the USA, UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Japan, Canada and Australia in the search for and appraisal of surficial and nearshore deposits globally along the continental shelves. This resulted in a bi-annual series of international training courses on gold prospecting and evaluation with the author as Director of Studies. He has advised on alluvial gold projects associated with exploration, mining, treatment and evaluation worldwide, including Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Papua New Guinea, and extensively throughout the Americas, Africa, the Indian sub-continent and South East Asia.

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Contents

Nature and history of gold
 - Gold mineralogy
 - Gold through the ages

Geology of gold ore deposits
 - Crustal evolution
 - Tectonic elements of plate movements
 - Hydrothermal gold systems
 - Gold deposition in volcanic terrain
 - Provenance
 - Time rate of unroofing ore bodies

Gold deposition in the weathering environment
 - The plate tectonic rock cycle
 - Earth’s atmosphere and climate
 - Agents of weathering
 - Weathering processes
 - Landscape denudation
 - Low temperature aqueous geochemistry

Sedimentation and detrital gold
 - Sediment characteristics
 - Fluvial hydrology
 - Drainage systems
 - Entrainment, transport and sorting
 - Fluvial gold deposition

Gold exploration
 - Geological investigations
 - Exploration geochemistry
 - Remote sensing
 - Shallow land-based geophysics
 - Shallow offshore geophysics

Lateritic and alluvial gold sampling
 - Sampling criteria
 - Prospecting methods - onshore
 - Prospecting methods – offshore
 - Sample dressing
 - Ore resource estimation

Mine planning and practice
 - Planning
 - Operational concepts and schedules
 - Sluicing practice
 - Bucket line dredging
 - Hydraulic dredgers
 - Dry mining
 - Miscellaneous dredger types

Metallurgical processes and design
 - Theory of gravity concentration
 - Flow sheet and materials balance
 - Feed preparation
 - Gravity processing
 - Lateritic gold metallurgy

Evaluation, risk and feasibility
 - Project management
 - Economic appraisal
 - Risk analysis and uncertainty
 - The feasibility study concept

Appendices
 - Field laboratories and techniques
 - Variogram structural analysis
 - Sitework testing
 - Gold economics

References