THERE'S GOLD IN THEM THAR HILLS; MINING COMPANY HOPES FOR A NEW MOTHER LODE.Byline: Jim Skeen Daily News Staff Writer If all goes well, the Golden Queen Mining Co. Ltd. envisions pulling gold from Soledad Mountain in early 1999 - 57 years after the last miner pulled out. The company plans to spend between $60 million and $80 million to build a new mine that would run for at least 12 years, employing 230 workers. ``We're ready to move dirt,'' said Phil Wyman, a former state senator Noun 1. state senator - a member of a state senate senator - a member of a senate who is a consultant for the company. The company is waiting for final approval from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which is expected to come in October. ``After that, we are going to get into the financing for the project,'' said Dick Graeme, vice president of the company. ``It'll cost between $60 million to $80 million. We've already spent $22 million.'' Plans call for the mine to be established on 950 acres on Soledad Mountain, just west of the Antelope Valley Freeway The Antelope Valley Freeway is a freeway in Los Angeles and Kern counties in southern California. It is signed as California State Highway 14 along its length. It connects Greater Los Angeles to the rapidly developing Antelope Valley. about five miles south of Mojave. The mine would be an open-pit, cyanide cyanide (sī`ənīd'), chemical compound containing the cyano group, -CN. Cyanides are salts or esters of hydrogen cyanide (hydrocyanic acid, HCN) formed by replacing the hydrogen with a metal (e.g., sodium or potassium) or a radical (e.g. leach processing operation. Construction will take about a year and will involve building a processing plant, leach pads, offices, an assay office Assay offices are institutions set up to assay (test the purity of) precious metal items, to protect consumers. Upon successful completion of the assay, (i.e. the metallurgical content is found to be equal or better than that claimed by the maker and it otherwise conforms to the and maintenance shops. The company could begin extracting gold about three months after construction is completed. ``It's going to mean 230 to 250 jobs, which are desperately needed,'' said Bill Deaver, president of the Mojave Town Council. ``It's a great sign the economy is going back up.'' Gold was first discovered at Soledad Mountain in 1894. In 1935, a subsidiary of a South African firm consolidated various claims and constructed a 400-ton-a-day cyanide mill. The company is estimated to have processed 1 million tons of ore at grades of approximately .23 ounces of gold and 2.5 ounces of silver per ton before the War Production Board shut down the operation in 1942, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. a company profile. Golden Queen Mining Co. believes at least 42 million tons of gold ore remains in the rocky butte Rocky Butte is an extinct volcanic cinder cone in Portland, Oregon. It is one of three, along with Powell Butte, and Mount Tabor, inside the city that are each home to a city park, Rocky Butte playing host to James Wood Hill Park. . The company will loosen the ore with ammonium nitrate ammonium nitrate, chemical compound, NH4NO3, that exists as colorless, rhombohedral crystals at room temperature but changes to monoclinic crystals when heated above 32°C;. explosives, then place the crushed ore on leaching pads on top of clay covered with synthetic liners. The ore is mixed with cement and lime. A cyanide solution is added, pulling the gold out of the ore. The solution is then processed and the gold recovered. CAPTION(S): Map MAP: (only ran in AV edition) Golden Queen Mine, Cactus Mine and Tropico Hill Mine |
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