Gold mining at Aldan, Gallery. RDC ScanEx

Gallery

Title
Gold mining at Aldan

Acquisition date
27/05/2007

Sensor
SPOT-2

854 x 1042
BMP (2 610 Kб)

Gold mining at Aldan

The image was acquired on May 27, 2007 by SPOT 2 imaging system in green, red and near infrared zones. The image covers the northern part of the Aldan Mountains situated in the South Yakutia. Upland terrain prevails here with average heights not exceeding 500 meters. Dark green color on the image reflects larch forest, lighter green – swamped thin forest along river valleys.

A great variety of minerals was explored within the upland limits including occurrence of large volumes of stream gold and hardrock gold. In general Aldan gold mining region is considered one of the largest in Russia.

Extraction of stream gold is done using dredges and prospectors’ teams. Teams mine small placers in river valleys. In this case subsoils are stripped using bulldozers followed by buddling. Dredges represent mobile miniature plants used for mining larger placers. They fully process valley bottoms disturbing natural ecosystems. Mining depth accounts for 6 – 8 meters with dump heights up to 6 – 10 meters. Dredge tracks are reflected in the central part of the image: light strips of dumps are observed, which alternate with dark ditches filled with water.

Hardrock gold is extracted using pit method. On the image the pits are reflected in rounded light spots coalescing in one figure. The pit area reaches several square kilometers with mining depth to 10 meters. In this case hardrock is processed using chemical method, which leads to pollution of surface and underground waters. Nowadays over half of gold mining volumes is provided by pit mining.

Industrial operations disturb water systems flows and change area landscapes. Environmental monitoring is often implemented using space imagery: they are used to detect technogenic land forms – ditch systems, dumps, tailings dams with industrial waste and vehicle tracks, where vegetation is hardly restored.

Title:	Gold mining at Aldan
Acquisition date:	27/05/2007
Sensor:	SPOT-2

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©2005-2010 R&D Center ScanEx. All Rights Reserved.
mailto: webmaster@scanex.ru