Bench
A ledge that, in open-pit mine and quarries, forms a single level of operation above which minerals or waste materials are excavated from a contiguous bank or bench face. The mineral or waste is removed in successive layers, each of which is a bench, several of which may be in operation simultaneously in different parts of, and at different elevations in, an open-pit mine or quarry.
Bio-oxidation
Bio-oxidation is a pre-treatment process, which oxidizes and removes sulphides that have encapsulated gold. The exposed gold is then leached using traditional methods, such as cyanide. This pre-treatment has improved gold recovery and has allows the development of previously uneconomical zones.
Blast hole
A hole drilled in a material to be blasted, for the purpose of containing an explosive charge.
Breccia
A coarse-grained rock composed of angular, broken rock fragments held together by a mineral cement or in a fine-grained matrix.
Carbon-in-leach
A gold recovery process in which a slurry of gold-bearing ore, carbon and cyanide are mixed together. The cyanide dissolves the gold, which is subsequently absorbed by and separated from the carbon.
Conversion
factors
Weights and measures on this site represent units commonly used in the gold industry. Conversion factors are provided below:
| To Convert Imperial Measurement Units |
To Metric Measurement Units |
Multiply By | ||
| Acres | Hectares | 0.404686 | ||
| Feet | Metres | 0.30480 | ||
| Miles | Kilometres | 1.609344 | ||
| Ounces (troy) | Grams | 31.1035 | ||
| Pounds | Kilograms | 0.454 | ||
| Short tons | Tonnes | 0.907185 | ||
| Troy ounces per ton | Grams per tonne | 34.2857 |
Cut-off grade
The minimum
metal grade at which a tonne of rock can be processed on an economic basis.
Deposit
A mineralized body which has been physically delineated by sufficient drilling, trenching and/or underground work and found to contain a sufficient average grade of metal or metals to warrant further exploration and/or development expenditures; such a deposit does not qualify as a commercially mineable ore body or as containing mineral reserves until final legal, technical and economic factors have been resolved.
Flowsheet
A diagram showing the progress of material through a preparation or treatment plant. It shows the crushing, screening, cleaning or refining processes to which the material is subjected from the run-of-mine state to the clean and sized products. The size range at the various stages may also be shown.
Electrowinning
An electrochemical process used to recover gold and other metals from solution in the leaching of ores and concentrates.
Grade
The amount of gold in each tonne of ore, usually expressed in grams per tonne.
Heap Leach
Ores that have been mined, crushed, and transported and stacked on an impervious pad for leaching by sprinkling and percolation of the solution through the ore. As the solution migrates through the ore, it leaches the gold from the rock and holds it in a solution. The gold bearing solution is collected at the base of the leach pad in the pore space within the heap. The gold bearing solution is pumped to the gold recovery plant where suspended solids are removed and the solution is then treated in a conventional precious metal circuit.
Mineralization
The concentration
of minerals within a body of rock
Ounce (troy)
All ounces referenced on this website are troy ounces. Despite the world's gradual conversion to the metric system, the troy ounce remains a fixture of the gold industry and the most important basis for expressing quotations of most gold markets. One troy ounce equals approximately 31.1 grams in weight. There are 32.15 troy ounces in a kilogram.
Reserves
and Resources
Centerra's classification of mineral reserves and resources and the subcategories of each conforms with definitions adopted by the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum Council on August 20, 2000, which are in accordance with Canadian Securities Administrators' National Instrument 43-101 dated November 17, 2000.
|
Mineral resource Inferred mineral resource Indicated mineral resource Measured mineral resource Mineral reserve Probable mineral reserve Proven mineral reserve |
Reclamation
The process by which lands disturbed as a result of mining activity are reclaimed back to a beneficial land use. Reclamation activity includes the removal of buildings, equipment, machinery and other physical remnants of mining, closure of tailings impoundments, leach pads and other mine features and contouring, covering and re-vegetation of waste rock piles and other disturbed areas.
Refractory Ore
Mineralized rock in which much of the gold is encapsulated in sulphides or other minerals and is not readily amenable to dissolution by cyanide solutions (unlike oxidized ore) even with fine grinding.
Strip ratio
This is the ratio between the volume of total waste material and the volume of gold bearing ore at the mine site.
Tailings
The material that remains after all economically recoverable metals or minerals of economic interest has been removed from the ore through milling and processing.
Ton
A ton or short
ton is a British imperial measure of weight equivalent to 2,000 pounds.
Tonne
A tonne or metric tonne is about 10% greater in weight than a short ton and equivalent in weight to 1000 kilograms or 2,205 pounds.
Waste
Barren rock in a mine, or mineralized material that is too low in grade to be mined and milled at a profit.


















