2,500 ozs Fine. What does that mean.

[Tassie Daz]

Hi all. A question for the learned of the forum. I am reading a little book about the Copper Triangle of SA, Kadina, Wallaroo and Moonta, and the text tells me that the mines produced 2,500 oz "fine" of gold. Can anyone tell me what that means please?

 

[Ben78]

fine is refined, 99.9% pure

 

[Guest]

Pretty sure it means that the total end weight, after removing impurities, of the gold produced was 2,500oz of 24 carat gold being between 99.5% & 99.99% purity.

 

[Tassie Daz]

Thanks fellas. Wow, that's interesting. So if they dropped any rock around the mines as they loaded it to take it to Wallaroo for smelting then there's a chance for a little surprise, I guess. That just makes me realize that those little glitters I used to see when I was a kid setting rabbit traps really was gold and not fools gold as we were told............might have to go out and check around the pits in earnest.....Cant get too close though as they go down 2900 ft at their deepest [but they're full of water that's absolutely putrid]

 

[Guest]

Don't know much about the mining down there only that it was predominantly copper. That suggests the gold may have been finely disseminated in the host rocks with the copper ore. Finding "dropped" specimen type gold while not impossible seems unlikely as these seem to be base metal (copper) deposits where the gold was obtained as a byproduct. For the area the grade was about 0.4grams/tonne so a specci would be unlikely.
I would be researching the gold reef mining & alluvial areas for better prospects.

http://www.pir.sa.gov.au/minerals/geological_survey_of_sa/commodities/gold

 

[loamer]

aren't they getting similiar results with fine gold as a byproduct at Olympic Dam?

Proven reserves at the Olympic Dam mine as of June 2011 stand at 146Mt graded at 1.98% Cu, 0.58kg/t U3O8, 0.69g/t Au and 4.01g/t Ag. Probable reserves are estimated to be 406Mt graded at 1.79% Cu, 0.57kg/t U3O8, 0.78g/t Au and 3.19g/t Ag.

That's grams per tonne! Hardly detectable even if you could get near it.

 

[Ben78]

Been there, yep very very low grade gold but its there and in the left over sludge after the copper is refined. There is stories of massive veins under ground though but doubt the legitimacy of it...

 

[Guest]

Don't know about massive veins but they have intersected high grade massive sulphide deposits (basically a metal sulphide ore deposit that can contain various metals including copper, gold, lead, zinc, silver etc. in varying quantities). Still unlikely to have any section of detectable gold within them. These days they talk about parts per million with these mines.
Tassie research the reef mining areas & alluvial areas. Look for areas that were rich & search there. Don't, in my opinion, waste time looking around old copper mines for gold. Stick to mines/mining where gold was the major commodity.

 

[TenOunce Tone]

2,500 oz of fine gold is a happy Tone.. well its what it means to me..

Cheers, Tone

 

[Tassie Daz]

Thanks fellas. Yes I understand that the best thing to do is go where the gold was found and search there but in a state where gold was found a loonngggg way from where I live, it passes the time to do other stuff......coin shooting of Predec's and relics from the 19th century. [And maybe find a little specie if they were ever around. As I said when I was a kid, I'm sure I saw those host rocks with tiny bits of gold in them] Anyway it helps pass the time until I can return to "fields of gold" and hunt for the allusive "sherrin" of gold.

Let me know if you find it first!!!!!!!