Gold Mining Jobs in Australia | Mining Employment

Gold is the most sought after precious metal finding its usage in various walks of life. Gold is used in coinage, jewelery & ornaments, memorabilia, medical treatment procedures, photography, electronics, automobiles etc in varying quantities for an array of applications. Globally South Africa is the largest producer of gold followed by countries like United States of America, Australia, China and Peru.

One of the oldest gold mining technique is Gold panning. The ore and dirt dug up from the mine is placed on shallow, wide pans and water is poured in the pan. The dirt dissolves in the water leaving gold in the pan. Gold being a metal is denser than silt & rock and can be found at the bend of a river stream. The gold found in the river streams, wet or dry , is called a placer deposit. Even though gold panning is less expensive, it is completely manual and is less efficient. Metal detecting is one of the fanciest & easiest method in mining gold. The process involves scanning the prospective gold mine with a metal detector and if the deposits are found, mining starts immediately.

For small scale prospecting and mining of Gold, a sluice box is being used right from the ancient days to till date. A sluice box is a man-made channel with built in riffles at the bottom. Dead zones created by the riffles in the current makes the gold fall out of the suspension. The gold bearing ore is placed at the top and the sluice box is positioned in the running current of the stream. The current of water carries the dirt & silt and the gold is collected behind the riffles. In a huge, commercial gold mining scenario, trommels or screening equipment are used to remove gravel and boulders before placing the material bearing gold in the sluice box. When the gold ore is encased within a rock and not as loose sediments, hard rock mining is employed.

The next step after extracting the gold ore from the deposits is processing to obtain the pure gold. One of the popular methods of processing is Gold Cyanidation. In this process, Sodium Cyanide is added to the powdered ore and Gold Cyanide & silver cyanide solution is formed. Adding Zinc to this solution will precipitate Gold, Silver and Zinc. Zinc can be removed using Sulphuric Acid and smelting will give us 99.9999% pure gold and silver.

Australia is home to 10% of the world Gold reserves. Western Australia hosts 75% of the gold reserves and contributes two thirds of the Australia's gold production. Olympic Dam in Southern Australia, Kalgoorie Super pit, Telfer Mines, Sunrise dam, St Ives, Kanowna Belle, Yilgarn craton and Cadia Hills in New South Wales are some of the famous gold mines operated by the mining industry in Australia. Mining industry in Australia employs skilled labor for various job positions like geologists, mine surveyors, excavators, metallurgists, mine engineers, underground mine engineers, mine supervisors, smelter manager, Administrators etc and unskilled labor for the positions of office assistants, caterers, cleaners, bar work, drillers offsider, field assistants dump truck drivers etc. in the gold mines.

There is certain information you need to know, start getting prepared today to avoid common mistakes people make which slows down the process of getting a mining job in the mines.
You may be wondering:

1. What licenses and tickets are needed?
2. Training and courses required and recommended providers.
3. Where the jobs are in Western Australia
4. FIFO – Fly in fly out jobs or DIDO – Drive in Drive Out or Residential Options
5. How to obtain a traineeship in the mines
6. The Rosters available with different mining companies and mine sites

For professional assistance and expert advice let Ross become your guide in getting a mining job in Australia. For more info please refer to the home page. Click here Rosco’s Mining Jobs Australia

Gold Mining Jobs WA Australia