A preliminary study on the characteristics of the tailing ofthe hammermill –sluice box operation at the kraboedoin and kriki negi hill District brokopondo- Suriname

Abstract

The small scale mining in Suriname is one of the most important livelihoods and biggest contributors to the economy of Suriname. However this sector needs to be evaluated continuously in order to introduce environmental friendly and more efficient methods. Another pre condition before introducing other environmental friendly and more efficient method is; knowing the compound of the ore. The Hammer mill – Sluice box method is one of the most used methods by the small scale miners. This technique uses a Hammer mill to grind the ore and a Sluice box to concentrate the gold.To study some charactistics of the tailing of the small scale gold miners at Kraboedoin and Kriki negi hills, the tailing samples were collected. The particle size distribution, the gold content and the heavy mineral percentage per fraction of these samples were determined and analyzed.The results of both sites showed that about 70% of the tailing had size between 0.250mm and 2.000mm, the average gold content in the tailing at Kraboedoin hill is 0.93ppm and at Kriki negi hillis 3.30ppm.