8. Metallogeny: the different types of gold deposits

The metallogeny of gold is complex, imposing specific mining methods depending on the morphology of the deposits. Since the characteristics of each deposit are not exactly the same from one to the next, an attempt to classify them can be made pragmatically, based on their morphology, grades and mining methods (table 10 ).

The proposed classification does not take into account structural observations essential to the mineralurgist and metallurgist, such as gold's accompanying elements, mineralization, the mineralogical nature of gold and its carrier minerals, etc. It also ignores the fact that gold is a co-product of ores mined for their base metal content rather than their gold content. We also fail to take into account the fact that 20% of resources consist of gold, as a co-product of ores mined for their...