Features of the mineral composition of ores in the oxidation zone of the Okzhetpes ore field (on the example of the gold mining area “Ore Zone No. 3”)

Abstract

The discovery of new deposits every year becomes more difficult, since promising areas are located at a relative depth, are characterized by more complex mining and geological conditions and smaller sizes. In addition, these new areas are overlain by younger formations, where intense supergene processes are often developed, which require other more advanced methods of forecasting and estimating hidden positions. The Okzhetpes antiform in the core is composed of carbonate rocks (limestones, dolomites) of the Devonian-Carboniferous age of the structural-material complex (SMC) Murun, and on the wings - overlying terrigenous rocks of the Early Paleozoic. Previously, many studies of the oxidation zone of Western Uzbekistan were considered from the point of view of the search for bauxites, zeolites and other mineral resources. Mineralogical studies of recent years are aimed at assessing the gold content of the oxidation zones. The article considers the materials obtained by the authors in the study of the mineral composition of the ores of the gold ore area "Ore zone No. 3" of the Okzhetpes ore field. The processes of desulphurization, the behavior of finely dispersed gold, which are in the composition of ores, are disclosed. The obtained research results confirm that the predominant part of gold remains in the minerals replacing sulfides (pyrite, arsenopyrite) with the preservation of gold and its characteristic companions in the products of sulfide oxidation (hedrogoethite, goethite and scorodite).