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The distribution and recovery of gold in the Golden Sunlight gold-silver telluride deposit, Montana, U.S.A.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 June 2018

P. G. Spry  and
S. E. Thieben
P. G. Spry
Affiliation:
Department of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences, 253 Science I, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011-3212, USA
S. E. Thieben
Affiliation:
Department of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences, 253 Science I, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011-3212, USA
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Abstract

The gold balance in an ore deposit where the ore is treated by cyanide is the sum of the ‘visible gold’ that is amenable to cyanidation and ‘visible gold’ and the ‘invisible gold’, which are not amenable to cyanidation. Petrographic analyses, electron and ion microprobe as well as scanning electron microscope studies of ore from the Golden Sunlight deposit, Montana, suggest that periods of relatively poor gold recoveries are primarily due to the presence of inclusions, <25 µm in size, of native gold, petzite, calaverite, buckhornite and krennerite. These are encapsulated in cyanide insoluble grains of pyrite, chalcopyrite and tennantite and are present in the tailings. This contribution probably accounts for 3–25% of the unrecoverable gold processed during the life of the mine. Minor amounts (6–7%) of ‘invisible gold’, as indicated by ion microprobe studies and the presence of up to 5% ‘visible gold’ in buckhornite, which is rare in nature, appears to account for the remainder of the gold budget.

Keywords

gold telluridesbuckhorniteGolden Sunlight depositMontana
Type
Research Article
Information
Mineralogical Magazine , Volume 64 , Issue 1 , February 2000 , pp. 31 - 42
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2000

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