Hishikari Mine

The Hishikari Mine is located in the northern part of Kagoshima Prefecture. It has produced 165.7 tons （as of the end of March, 2008） of gold since production started.
Hishikari Mine boasts high-grade gold containing an average of 40 grams of gold per 1 ton of ore （the average grade of the world's major gold mines is approximately 5 grams）, and, to this day, it still produces 7.5 tons of gold per year. Although there were many metal mines throughout Japan in the past, they closed down one after another. Today, the Hishikari Mine is the only domestic metal mine being operated on a commercial scale.

Ore Deposits of the Hishikari Mine

The ore deposits of the Hishikari Mine are known as "epithermal vein-type deposits". In the process of earth movements, known as "plate tectonics", in which the pacific plate slides under the Japanese archipelago, magma is generated. This magma comes up through cracks in the earth's crust, and erupts as volcanoes on the surface of the earth. When groundwater or water content of magma （hot water） is introduced into cracks of the surface of the earth during volcanic activity, substances that dissolved in hot water cool down and form ore veins. The gold deposits of the Hishikari Mine were formed in this way. They are believed to have formed approximately one million years ago. The gold deposits are very new from a geological standpoint and are characterized by their accompanying hot spring water with a temperature of 65 degrees C .

Ore Genesis of the Hishikari Deposits

Utilization of Underground Hot Spring Water

Hot water extraction room 50 m underground

The Yunoo hot spring resort,
where hot spring water is supplied from the Hishikari Mine.

Photomicrograph

Photomicrograph
El: electrum
Nm: naumanite
Cp: chalcopyrite

The Gold-Making Process

Underground

Gold Ore Vein

The ore deposits of the Hishikari Mine are formed by several ore veins running vertically.
Drifts are made for mining in a horizontal direction against these ore deposits.

Drilling

Holes are drilled in the ore veins using a drilling machine （Jumbo）. 40 to 50 holes with a depth of 1.8 m to 3.5 m are drilled.

Jumbo

Charging
Blasting

30 kg to 50 kg of water gel explosives are loaded into each hole to blast the holes.

Mucking

Ore that was crushed through blasting is collected with a mucking machine known as an LHD （Load Haul Dump）.

Haulage

The collected ore is transferred from the LHD to a dump truck, and is carried to the above ground ore processing facilities.

Carrying ore in by dump truck

Surface

Hand Picking
Ore Sorting

The collected ore is transferred from the LHD to a dump truck, and is carried to the above ground ore processing facilities.Carrying ore in by dump truck

Transportation

The separated gold ore is loaded into a gold ore carrier at the Kajiki Port in Kinkowan, and is transported to the Toyo Smelter ＆ Refinery, which is SMM's main smelter.

Gold Pouring

The gold ore carried to the Toyo Smelter ＆ Refinery is put into a flash furnace and taken out as pure gold with 99.99％ purity after being processed in the precious metals plant using a hydrometallurgical process.