Student Placement 2017 - Cardiff University - Week 2

During our second week at Rudnik we continued with the daily tasks and activities we were introduced to in the first week. Through this we were able to further develop our ideas and understanding regarding the operation and the area the project delivery team are currently working on. We started the week stream sediment sampling in the new proposed exploration license area south of the current exploration area in Rudnik. We took samples from 6 different locations in the North Eastern section of the Proposed license area. We also spent a large amount of time in the core shed assisting the project delivery team with core recovery analysis and documenting features such as veins, contacts and foliations within the core in addition to checking the confidence of the drill cores by orientation.We also visited the underground mine numerous times during the week assisting members of the project delivery team, taking measurements of the mine faces width and height for the channel sampling template, along with a sketch of the geology, oxidation and veins/mineralisation on the wall face. By comparing each sketch, we were able to understand and see the progression of veins including Sphalerite, Galena and Chalcopyrite in varying locations of the underground mine. We concluded the week by visiting the flotation plant.

We followed the progression of the mined ore from raw seams to concentrates of Lead, Zinc, Copper and Silver ready for delivery. We followed the ore as it entered the plant and its progression through separate crushers and grinders in order to reduce the size of the ore grains, the ore was then separated and treated with chemical reagents before it was sieved and filtered to produce the concentrate. I believe these past two weeks and this week in particular have been very valuable in terms of experience and I’m glad we’ve been given the opportunity to visit an active working mine while studying our degree.