The Jinfeng Gold Mine () is a combined

open pit Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique of extracting rock or minerals from the earth from an open-air pit, sometimes known as a borrow. This form of mining ...

and

underground Underground most commonly refers to: * Subterranea (geography), the regions beneath the surface of the Earth Underground may also refer to: Places * The Underground (Boston), a music club in the Allston neighborhood of Boston * The Underground (S ...

gold mining operation in the

Guizhou Guizhou (; formerly Kweichow) is a landlocked province in the southwest region of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Guiyang, in the center of the province. Guizhou borders the autonomous region of Guangxi to t ...

province, China. The mine is owned by

China National Gold Group Corporation China National Gold Group Corporation (中国黄金集团有限公司) (CNGC or China Gold) is a centrally state owned Chinese gold corporation primarily engaged in the mining and refining of gold, silver, copper, and molybdenum. Mining operatio ...

. It was originally owned by

Sino Gold Mining Sino Gold Mining Limited or Sino Gold () was a gold mining company headquartered in Sydney and conducting most of their mining operations in Jilin, Heilongjiang, Guizhou, and Shaanxi provinces in the People's Republic of China. In addition to b ...

and then acquired by

Eldorado Gold Eldorado Gold Corporation is a Canadian company that owns and operates gold mines Gold mining is the extraction of gold resources by mining. Historically, mining gold from alluvial deposits used manual separation processes, such as gold pann ...

in 2009. Eldorado Gold sold its 82% stake in the Jinfeng Gold Mine to a wholly owned subsidiary of China National Gold Group for ~US$300 million in September 2016. Production at Jinfeng began in 2007.

History

The deposit was discovered in 1986,

received the mining licence in 2001. Sino Gold's investment in the mine was the largest mining investment in the People's Republic of China by a foreign company, and the first foreign company to mine gold in the PRC. Construction of the Jinfeng Gold Mine started in 2005, and gold production began in 2007. Eldorado Gold acquired the property when they purchased Sino Gold in 2009. Jinfeng was still the largest foreign-owned gold mine, and the second largest gold mine in the PRC. Despite owning the second largest gold mine in the country, in 2010 Eldorado only accounted for 3% of the PRCs total gold output.

Geology

The deposit at the Jinfeng Gold Mine is a Carlin-type gold deposit (similar to those found in

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

) in the " Laizhishan Dome" located in a region known as the "Golden Triangle". The Laizhishan Dome is made up of

sedimentary rocks Sedimentary rocks are types of rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic particles at Earth's surface, followed by cementation. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause these particles t ...

from the

Silurian The Silurian ( ) is a geologic period and system spanning 24.6 million years from the end of the Ordovician Period, at million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Devonian Period, Mya. The Silurian is the shortest period of the Paleozo ...

through the

Late Triassic The Late Triassic is the third and final epoch (geology), epoch of the Triassic geologic time scale, Period in the geologic time scale, spanning the time between annum, Ma and Ma (million years ago). It is preceded by the Middle Triassic Epoch ...

periods. The deposit itself is located between five faults, with gold being associated with

pyrite The mineral pyrite (), or iron pyrite, also known as fool's gold, is an iron sulfide with the chemical formula Iron, FeSulfur, S2 (iron (II) disulfide). Pyrite is the most abundant sulfide mineral. Pyrite's metallic Luster (mineralogy), lust ...

and

arsenopyrite Arsenopyrite ( IMA symbol: Apy) is an iron arsenic sulfide (FeAsS). It is a hard ( Mohs 5.5-6) metallic, opaque, steel grey to silver white mineral with a relatively high specific gravity of 6.1. When dissolved in nitric acid, it releases eleme ...

References

{{Reflist Mines in China