Bot all new sources of industrial minerals supply are greenfield sites. Increasingly, as mineral processing technology advances, developers are looking at converting old mining tailings into new, high-value feedstocks.
In Australia, Creswick Quartz Pty Ltd is expecting to bring on stream a new source of high quality quartz from the waste tailings of late 19th century alluvial gold mines in central-west Victoria.
Creswick Quartz, founded in 1996, is a privately owned company operating at Creswick in Victoria, Australia.
Lump quartz extracted from below ground at
Creswick, Victoria.
Deposit
Creswick has secured quartz tailings located in the Creswick district of Victoria, being remnants from the gold-rush of the 1800s. Investigations confirm that this “industrial waste” contains no gold within the quartz at ppb levels, and is low in impurities, especially boron and phosphorous. The quartz is predominantly lump quartz 200-20mm.
The volume of above ground quartz is in excess...