Gold Mining Company “UGC”, Chelyabinsk, Russia:
K. I. Strukov, President
S. N. Plotnikov, Chief Dresser, e-mail: s.plotnikov@ugold.ru
I. E. Plotnikova, Manufacturing Engineer of the Chief Dresser's Department, Office

JSC “Irgiredmet”, Irkutsk, Russia:

Yu. L. Nikolaev, Senior Researcher of Laboratory of Metallurgy

The Gold Mining Company “UGC” carries out the mining of the Kurosan, Svetlinskoe and Bereznyakovskoe deposits, where the gold heap leaching technology was successfully introduced. Usage of this technology showed its high efficiency particularly at the initial stage of deposit mining, when the company has an opportunity to rapidly increase the volume of commodity output and create the necessary production and financial reserves for reconstruction and construction of gold mining plants. Our paper shows the experience of introducing heap leaching technology in these deposits. Certain parameters of technological processes are revealed together with the ways of successful solution of the problem of heap leaching of gold-bearing ores, typical by high copper content. The proper organization of labor at the enterprise and competent engineering support makes the shortest possible time of the creation of an effective heap leaching facility for gold. Introduction of this progressive geotechnology, which is widespread in the world practice, allows the production volumes to grow rapidly and create the necessary production and financial reserves for the reconstruction and construction of gold mining plants.

1. Petersen J. Heap leaching as a key technology for recovery of values from low-grade ores — a brief overview. Hydrometallurgy. 2015. Vol. 165. pp. 206–212.
2. Manning T. J. Heap Leaching of Gold and Silver Ores. Gold Ore Processing: Project Development and Operations. Second Ed. NV, USA : Elsevier, 2016. pp. 413–428.
3. Brierley J. A. A perspective on developments in biohydrometallurgy. Hydrometallurgy. 2008. Vol. 94, No. 1–4. pp. 2–7.
4. Ndlovu S. Biohydrometallurgy for sustainable development in the African minerals industry. Hydrometallurgy. 2008. Vol. 91, No. 1–4. pp. 20–27.
5. Spiridonov A. M. Material composition of ores and metasomatically altered rocks of Bereznyakovskoe epithermal gold ore deposit (the South Urals). Izvestiya Sibirskogo otdeleniya sektsii nauk o Zemle RAEN. 2014. No. 5. pp. 6–21.
6. Sazonov V. N. Bereznyakovskoe gold-porphyritic deposit. Ekaterinburg : UrO RAN, 1994. 48 p.
7. Grabezhev A. I. Mineralization of Tominskiy gold-porphyritic knot. Doklady RAN. 1993. No. 3 (330). pp. 349–351.
8. Ogorodnikov V. N. Minerageny of wire zones of the Urals. Part 1. Kochkarskiy ore region (South Urals). Ekaterinburg : UGGGA, 2004. 216 p.
9. Sazonov V. N. Gold ore formations of the Urals : preprint. Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Sverdlovsk : UrO AN SSSR, 1988. 72 p.
10. Sazonov V. N. Gold deposits of the Urals. Ekaterinburg : UGGGA, 1999. 570 p.
11. Seravkin I. B. Zonality of placing of gold-ore deposits of the South Urals. Geologicheskiy sbornik IG UfNTs RAN. 2013. No. 10. pp. 225–235.
12. Ivanov V. G., Kamnev E. N., Smagin A. P. Physical and chemical geotechnology of uranium on rock deposits. Moscow : Gornaya kniga, 2009. 375 p.
13. Khalezov B. D. Heap leaching of copper and copper-zinc ores. Ekaterinburg : RIO UrO RAN, 2013. 332 p.
14. Watling H. R. The bioleaching of nickel-copper sulfides. Hydrometallurgy. 2008. Vol. 91, No. 1–4. pp. 70–88.
15. Rylnikova M. V., Radchenko D. N., Ilimbetov A. F., Zvyagintsev A. N. Experimental and industrial approbation of leaching technology of coppersulfur ore production wastes. Gornyy informatsionno-analiticheskiy byulleten. 2008. No. 2. pp. 293–301.
16. Rylnikova M. V., Radchenko D. N., Milkin D. A. Substantiation of parameters and mode of leaching of raw materials of technogenic formations, accompanying the mining of copper-sulfur deposits. Gornyy informatsionnoanaliticheskiy byulleten. 2010. No. 3. pp. 340–350.
17. Bin Xu, Yongbin Yang, Qian Li, Tao Jiang, Shiqian Liu, Guanghui Li. The development of an environmentally friendly leaching process of a high C, As and Sb bearing sulfide gold concentrate. Minerals Engineering. 2016. Vol. 89, April 2016. pp. 138–147.
18. Chanturiya V. A. Influence of granulometric composition and reagent mode on the process of heap leaching of oxidized copper ores. Gornyi Zhurnal. 2002. No. 3. pp. 48–50.
19. Dementev V. E. Heap leaching of gold and silver. Irkutsk : Irgiredmet, 2004. 352 p.
20. Lodeyshchikov V. V. Technology of extraction of gold and silver from refractory ores. Irkutsk : Irgiredmet, 1999. 342 p.
21. Fayberg A. A., Petrov V. F., Voyloshnikov G. I. Conditioning of cyanidebearing reusable solutions with regenetration of free cyanide and copper extraction. Tsvetnye Metally. 2009. No. 9. pp. 40–44.
22. Vashchenko G. A., Gudkov S. S., Emelyanov Yu. E., Elshin V. V., Bogorodskiy A. V. The Bereznyakovskoye deposit gold ore processing technology improvement. Obogashchenie Rud. 2014. No. 6. pp. 7–10.
23. Fazlullin M. I. Heap leaching of noble metals. Moscow : Izdatelstvo Akademii gornykh nauk, 2001. 647 p.