The cyanide settlement tanks for gold processing at the Snowy Battery on the Snowy River near Waiuta Ghost Town, Westland, South Island, New Zealand
The cyanide settlement tanks for gold processing at the Snowy Battery on the Snowy River near Waiuta Ghost Town, Westland, South Island, New Zealand. The ore from the nearby Blackwater Mine was crushed at the Snowy River Battery. The crushed ore then passed through a series of processes to extract the gold. About 80% was extracted by an amalgamation process where a slurry was passed over copper plates coated with mercury. Fine gold combined with the mercury stuck to the plates and could be removed. Further processes recovered more fine gold. Finally cyanidation was used. This process worked as gold will dissolve in dilute cyanide and could be precipitated using zinc. The tanks used in this process are shown in this image. From the Snowy Battery cyanide, mercury, arsenic and a number of other harnful chemicals were run into the Snowy River and left around in the soil. Much of this dates from post 1924 when an ore roasting process commenced. Remediation of the worse polluted areas started in 2015.
Size: 4288px × 2848px
Location: Snowy River Battery Waiuta Ghost Town near Reefton West Coast South Island New Zealand
Photo credit: © Brian Hartshorn / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: archaeology, arsenic, battery, bearing, blackwater, coast, conservation, cyanide, department, doc, extraction, ghost, gold, historical, history, industrial, industry, island, mercury, mining, ore, pollution, precessing, processing, quartz, recovery, remediation, river, settlement, snowy, solution, south, tanks, tourist, town, treatment, waiuta, west, zealand
