Tailings Reprocessing: Finding Gold Where Others Didn’t
Valenta explained that many older mines still contain untapped gold – not because it wasn’t there, but because earlier mining methods couldn’t extract it efficiently. He said:
“Methods for extracting [minerals] weren’t as good as they are now, so people left a lot of gold behind. In many cases you can go back and retreat the tailings and waste from those mines to extract [even more gold].”
That means old waste piles – tailings – aren’t just rubbish; modern chemistry and machinery can extract previously overlooked gold, reducing environmental impact and leveraging existing infrastructure.
One common method is leaching, where a solution is used to draw out any remaining gold particles. Others use gravity separation or flotation, depending on the type of rock and how the gold is bound to it.
Cloncurry’s Revival
The Cloncurry region is prime ground. According to Valenta, it’s “one of the special places on the planet that has an enormous amount of mineral endowment.”
It already hosts the Ernest Henry Copper–Gold Mine, which contains around 2 million ounces of gold. Now, two companies – Orion Resources and AuKing Mining – are planning to re‑lease around 20 historic gold mines, including the old Mount Freda open pit, which closed during the 1990s gold crash.
