Thursday, July 1, 2010

Lead Ore Quality

The mineralogical characteristics the lead ore in our area of work has shown that the occurrence of the Lead (Pb) and Zinc (Zn) are side by side. Separating Pb form Zinc in raw material is almost impossible. Selective mining and careful selection on the ore has proved our maintaining ore quality at level of 40%-50% of Pb + Zn together. However, for the sake of quality assurance, we would only guarantee our lead ore quality is above 30% total Pb + Zn. Some random samplings has shown that the content of Pb is sometimes higher than Zn and sometimes Pb is lower than Zn.




























Lead Ore Production Capacity

Currently, we manage to produce 120-150 ton/month of lead ore and are trying to increase the production capacity. Out target is to increase the production capacity up to 400-500 ton/month. Our current method of mining is manual mining, which is very old-fashioned way of mining. Investment on equipments and infrastructures is needed to increase the production capacity and to cut the production cost.

Geologically, our holes are located in right geological setting. The precious metal deposits in the area are all epithermal and have been shown to extend from surface stockwork of millimeter to decimeter thick vein. Type of deposits to simple argillic-chloritic alteration zone, to breccia, and deeper types of the various epithermal classes.



























Lead Ore Mine Location

We mine lead ore (galena) in Cimapak, Bogor. Currently, we are producing lead ore from 3 holes. The yellow blocks show our mining location.