• Simão, Joaquim

Abstract

In Góis municipality, there are many abandoned mines due to the intense mining exploration of tin and tungsten in past<br/>decades. Vale Pião and Senhora da Guia are some of the main mines in the region. The present study proposes a methodology<br/>for the exploration of the existing waste rock piles, based on the geochemical, mineralogical and grain size characterizations<br/>with the objective of determining its exploration potential.<br/>The methodology is developed in 3 stages: (i) stage 1 – waste rock piles inventory and sampling; (ii) stage 2 – characterization<br/>laboratorial tests (analytical, mineralogical and grain size); (iii) stage 3 – Sn and W ore reserve calculation. In this study, it is<br/>presented the primary results of stages 1 and part of stage 2 of the proposed methodology.<br/>Given the heterogeneous nature of the waste rock piles (both composed by rock materials dismounted for opening the mine<br/>galleries or by materials that have been processed in the mine’s concentration plant) the geochemical characterization allows<br/>the development of a hierarchical classification of the waste rock piles according to its ore content. This way, it is possible to<br/>quantify the economically important metals that exist in the waste rock piles and, therefore, evaluate the strategy to apply in its<br/>exploration.

Topics

• impedance spectroscopy
• grain
• grain size
• tungsten
• tin