Smoking Gun (Adam Cartwright Trilogy Book 1) (4 page)

I had read somewhere that ninety nine percent of the world’s population believe that gold mining is a simple process. The common belief being that all that the gold miner has to do is to dig up the ore, crush it and pass it through a screen or water sluices to separate the gold particles. It is also widely assumed that these particles are then simply melted and cast into gold ingots ready for sale.

The Mount Godwin operation was the first gold mine that I had visited but I was aware that the gold mining was not as simple as commonly believed. Prior to leaving Townsville for Mount Godwin on a small charter flight I had studied the process flow sheet and had a reasonable understanding of what went on. But like most things in life, it was necessary to observe something firsthand before one could really understood it as the scale of an operation can only be fully understood by seeing it in action.

There were four other passengers on the small plane travelling to Mount Godwin with me. It was an orientation and co-ordination visit for all of us and we expected to be on site for three days. Our employer, Gibson Construction Limited, in partnership with a large metallurgical consulting firm, had won the contract to expand the production capacity of the mine. It was a lump sum contract which meant that Gibson Construction was committed to carry out the contracted work within an agreed time for an agreed price. If the project was finished late, penalties would be payable by Gibson Construction. On the other hand if the project was completed early then a bonus was payable to Gibson Construction.

The mine owners had specified what additional equipment was required to be installed and had already acquired some second-hand items including a crusher and two large ball mills. Gibson Construction’s job was to take a change in a process flow chart on paper and turn it into reality. I was to be responsible for all site work up to the handover after commissioning.

Three of the passengers on the plane were members of the design team. The challenge for them was to integrate additional equipment, and modify the existing buildings, without interrupting the ongoing production. Or at least minimising the interruptions. The fourth passenger was a land surveyor who, with the assistance of the mine surveying staff, would establish a network of setting-out points around the site for reference during construction. I had been hired to direct the actual construction work. My visit to the site was primarily to enable me to assess firsthand the condition of the existing structures, and availability of materials and services, prior to commencement of construction.

The plan for my first day on site was to get a better understanding of the site operations. As requested I was to be given a walk-through of the operation sequentially tracking activities from digging up the ore through to production of saleable gold. Upon my arrival I was met by a mining engineer who introduced himself as Tom Wilkinson, a slim, sunburnt man of around thirty, a couple of years older than me. Like many of the professional staff working on mines in remote areas in Australia he was indistinguishable from the rank and file workers. Clad in dusty denims and heavy boots and communicating in earthy language it would have been easy to underestimate his intelligence and level of education. But as I was to soon realise Tom Wilkinson, like others that I was to meet at Mount Godwin, was every bit as educated and smart as any suited professional working in the city.

After a brief exchange of pleasantries he drove us both to a prominent lookout point above the open pit. Spread out below us was a panorama of activity. The open pit was oval in shape, about a kilometre in length and half a kilometre in width. A broad roadway spiralled down to a large flat area at the bottom. As I watched a large digger was loading broken rock into even larger trucks which then hauled it up the winding road out of the open pit.

Wilkinson pointed at a large drill working immediately below us. “The first step in the mining process is to decide what is gold-bearing ore and what is waste rock. That machine is drilling holes in a grid pattern prior to blasting. Samples of insitu rock have already been taken and assayed. Based on those assay results areas of ore and waste rock have been defined and delineated with a spray can of white paint. The ore and waste rock will be mined separately and loaded into those super-sized dump trucks. The waste material is trucked directly to the waste rock dumps and the ore hauled to two large primary crushers near the Mill. The expansion project will replace those trucks carrying ore with a conveyor. The two existing primary crushers are to be relocated in the open pit together with an additional crusher during the expansion project. The conveyor will run through the tunnel at a one in four slope. You can see the entrance to the tunnel off to the right of that other drill. It has already been excavated.”

I was already aware that an additional primary crusher was to be installed in the open pit and the existing crushers relocated. Thinking out loud I said, “So, the first step is to install the new crusher and commission it along with the conveyor. Then, one by one the existing crushers are to be taken out of operation and moved to the open pit. The key will be to not interrupt production during any of those steps.”

Wilkinson smiled. “Exactly.”

As I looked at the scene below me I found myself liking the assignment more and more. This was the sort of challenge that I was hoping for. Then, pointing at a light vehicle emerging from the tunnel, I said, “So the tunnel is already being used.”

“Yes. It is wide enough for anything other than a dump truck or the larger pieces of mining equipment to use it. It has been designed to accommodate the conveyor, power cables and a roadway for vehicles. It is a handy shortcut from the Mill to the open pit.”

Wilkinson then drove us around the open pit and stopped near the existing primary crushers. He nodded his head towards the stockpile. “I’ll drop you off here. This is where the new conveyor will end. The primary crushed ore will be discharged into this existing stockpile area. From here on the ore is in the hands of the metallurgists. This is where I will hand you over to them.”

After shaking Tim Wilkinson’s hand and thanking him I exited the vehicle and greeted my new guide, a stocky, bearded man in his thirties who introduced himself as Barry Fredrickson.

After exchanging greetings my new guide commenced a comprehensive tour of the Mill. At each point he stopped and described the process. When there was new equipment to be installed, or modifications made, during the expansion project he described the requirements in detail. He had an encyclopedic knowledge of the entire process and was willing and able to answer my many questions.

Processing the ore was a twenty four hour a day operation. A front end loader shifted ore from the stockpile onto a conveyor which delivered it to the secondary crushers in the Mill building where it was reduced to pea-sized gravel. From there it was fed into a battery of large rotating mills where it was further reduced to silt-sized particles.

Each of the mills was around three metres high and about six metres long. Loaded with either steel rods or steel balls they pulverized the ore into small enough particles for the contained gold particles to be extracted. Seeing me studying the mills and their massive foundations my guide said, “Yes. You have to install two more of those beasts.” Turning and pointing to a couple of massive mill shells and a cluster of crates staked outside the building he added. “Those are the two second-hand mills that we have purchased. They’re ready for you to construct their foundations and install them.”

The Mill was by far the largest building on the mine site. Three storeys high and clad in unpainted corrugated galvanized iron, it was designed for function not aesthetics. Half a dozen steel tanks as high as the Mill building were clustered alongside. I recognised them as being the leach tanks. Three more of these were to be installed during the expansion project.

Fredrickson resumed his description of the process as he guided me through the mill and up and down ladders. After crushing and grinding to create a slurry of finely ground ore, water and a weak cyanide solution was fed into the large steel leach tanks where the gold was dissolved. Following this leaching process the slurry was then passed through six adsorption tanks containing carbon granules which adsorb the gold. This process removed up to ninety five percent of the gold present in the solution.

The gold-laden carbon was fed into a vertical column where the gold was washed off and the barren carbon recycled. The wash solution, and gold-rich electrolyte, was passed through electro-winning cells where gold, and some silver, was deposited onto stainless steel cathodes.

The loaded cathodes were then rinsed to yield a gold and silver bearing sludge which was dried, mixed with fluxes and placed into an electric furnace. After several hours the molten material was poured into a cascade of moulds producing bars of doré bullion, the saleable product. Each bar weighed about twenty kilograms and contained ninety nine percent of gold plus some silver.

This final stage of the process was carried out in a locked secure area known as the Gold Room and was not available for inspection. The gold doré bars produced would eventually be sent to the Western Australian Mint in Perth, where the doré bars would be refined by separating the gold from the silver. I was curious about the Gold Room operations and the procedures for storing the gold bars prior to sending them to the refinery and asked, “How frequently are the gold bars shifted off site?”

Barry Fredrickson replied, “No one knows for sure. Armed security guards call in by plane unannounced to collect the gold bars. Their visits could be anytime between three and five week intervals. Nobody on site knows in advance when they will arrive. Not even the site manager. They go straight to the Gold Room, collect the gold and depart in a few minutes.”

His reply had increased my curiosity. “Three to five week intervals. That would mean that there could be between $6 million and $10 million worth of gold just sitting there waiting to be collected. Or stolen. What security do you have?”

He grinned. “That’s a common topic of conversation at the bar late at night. But it’s not good form to ask a lot of questions. Even though there are no armed security guards on site, an unarmed guard is on duty at all times. But remember, access to the Gold room is strictly controlled and the gold bars are kept in a strong room.”

“What about people coming and going from the mine site?”

“All vehicles entering and leaving the mine site are logged in and out. But we only check the vehicles and their cargoes. We do not keep track of individuals.”

***

That evening was spent collating my many photographs and translating my recorded oral notes into a Word document. By the time I got into bed I had a report that tracked the flow of the ore from the ground through to its ultimate destinations; waste rock dumps, tailings ponds and gold doré. Each stage was illustrated with photographs and included a description of equipment used, throughput and people engaged. Plus a comprehensive set of notes of the installation of new equipment and operational issues to be addressed.

Even though it had no direct association with the expansion project I included a note about the Gold Room and what seemed to me to be a rather casual approach to Gold Room security.

The morning of the second day at the Mount Godwin mine site was spent in the company of two of the mine’s engineers. First I inspected and assessed the capacity of the workshops, water supply and power supply. During the tour I noticed lengths of structural steel within a fenced-off yard. There was a wide assortment of steel angles, beams, joists, and piping that seemed to have been accumulating there for some time. Some pieces had brackets drilled for structural bolts. Others had base plates attached. These had obviously been retrieved from dismantled structures and probably stored for possible re-use. Some were unused and, apart from a little rust and scrapes, were as good as new. This was just the type of resource that I had been keeping an eye open for. This could be an opportunity to save time and money.

I took photos of the structural steel lengths and asked my guide if he could provide a detailed list and dimensions of all steel in the yard. He was happy to oblige and during lunch I was approached by one of the site draftsmen and handed a detailed list of the steelwork.

That afternoon I reviewed the plans, specifications and construction schedule for the expansion project with the design team members. These documents had been prepared prior to me joining the project. One of the reasons for us all to be on site together was to ensure that we were all on the same page. It was my responsibility to check the proposal and confirm my agreement. Should there be a problem later during construction I would not be able to avoid responsibility by claiming that I was not involved in drawing up the plan.

Not unexpectedly the design team was not pleased when I questioned a number of key elements of their design and construction schedule. From my point of view they had approached the expansion of the existing plant as they would have approached a grass-roots project. I disagreed with their intention to source all building materials from off site. I did not agree that structural steel should be fabricated in Townsville and trucked to Mount Godwin. I proposed to modify the design to allow the use of structural steel reclaimed from the stock of second-hand steel in the storage yard. In addition, I did not agree with their placement of some equipment. In several instances they had planned to install plant in locations that would require existing plant to be taken offline for an interval of time.