World Placer Journal volume 1 : Nov 2000

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Review of the Gold Dredges in Mongolia,

with comments on mitigation of environmental impacts
Gerrit Bazuin (1), Robin Grayson MSc (2) Frank Mc.Bride (3) & Iain Barclay (4)
(1) General Director of Ochir Leasing Co. Ltd. [email protected]
(2) General Director of Eco-Minex International Co. Ltd. [email protected]
(3) General Director of MACSS Co. Ltd. [email protected]
(4) Marketing Director of Eco-Minex International Co. Ltd. [email protected]

ABSTRACT
Gold dredges are novel in Mongolia, part of the ongoing placer gold boom. Four large dredges are operating, plus
one ready to assemble and one more planned. Designs are based on dredges of 50 years ago that used mercury to
enhance gold recovery, a technique discontinued technique. The designs cause the coarse tailings to be discharged on
top of the fine tailings giving an unnatural restored profile. Retroengineering is affordable to create a more natural
profile. The dredges use the spud system for steerage rather than cable-and-winch system; thus the discharged
tailings tend to accumulate in mounds. Conversion to cable-and-winch would be difficult and not affordable. An
alternative would be the addition of a swinging stacker to spread the discharged tailings more evenly. Three of the 4
dredges use sluices of improved type, one uses conventional jigs, and recovery of fine gold would be much higher
with sawtooth jigs. The 4 dredges might boost production by 1 ton of gold a year between them if sawtooth jigs
were installed. This would give a fast payback, but local interest rates on loans are a prohibitive 4-7% per month, so
special financial incentives are needed, such as a tax holiday. The dredges are assisted by land-based draglines to strip
off the overburden creating severe environmental impacts, notably steep-sided high mounds of overburden. A switch
to cutter-suction dredges to pump the overburden away as slurry would produce more acceptable landforms, but
financial incentives are required. A constraint on restoration is the swell factor that increases the volume of
excavated material by 30-50%, so restoration to the original landform is not possible, as complete recompaction is not
achievable. Rehabilitation is possible, with scope for wildlife gain due to the potential to create a wetland mosaic.

Fig.1:

Mongolrosvestmet gold dredge in Zaamar Goldfield in 1998. The bucket-line is out of the water.

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Introduction
A gold rush is underway in Mongolia based on the rich and numerous placer (alluvial)
gold deposits. The rapid expansion of placer gold mining has occurred since the Government
launched the Gold Project which opened up to local and foreign investors the extraordinarily large
geological database produced by the command economy and formerly kept secret by the State.
Mongolia is a semi-arid country except near the northern border with Russia, and thus
most of the placers are amenable to dry-mining and indeed the shortage of surface water and
limited supplies of ground water are a major hurdle of expansion of placer mining into the rich
placer gold deposits in many arid regions such as the Gobi.
Nevertheless, many placers in Mongolia are beneath the water table, and are more
amenable to low-cost dredge operations rather than the uncertainties and expense of pumping
the groundwater to permit dry mining. Mongolia has some exceptionally large placers that are
largely below the water table, and the only realistic option is dredge mining.

Fig.2: front view of Mongolrosvestmet gold dredge in Zaamar Goldfield in 1998.

This paper reviews the current gold dredge mining in Mongolia and examines the
potential for mitigation of environmental impacts by upgrading the existing dredges and
adoption of western standards for all new dredge projects. The paper also examines to what
extent such retroengineering of old dredges to increased specifications can be self-financing and
what the source of such financing might be.

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Geological and Hydrological Factors

The main geological factors affecting dredge operations is the presence of placers in
river valley systems. In general, upper terraces are self-draining and amenable to dry mining.
However the river floodplains and often the lowermost terraces are charged with water, and
wet mining using a dredge is generally the only feasible option.
In Mongolia the harsh winter climate renders impracticable dry mining for more than
an average of 155 days a year, as the gold recovery requires water, not ice. Wet mining has a
particular advantage in that the dredges are able to operate for considerably more than 155 days
a year, due to the dredge ponds freezing over but still holding large volumes of unfrozen water
below for most of the winter, and because the process plant of a dredge tends to be largely
walled in. However the dredge needs to be steerable and effective as an ice-breaker even when
the dredge pond is frozen sufficiently for a truck to drive across.
A dredge is the ultimate in mobile mining with the gold recovery plant usually onboard the dredge and thus the mobile floating dredge conveys the recovery plant to the placer,
dispensing with the need for a fleet of trucks.

Fig.3:

side view of Mongolrosvestmet gold dredge showing walled-in flanks to protect from cold.

In spite of these inherent advantages, dredges face some special operational problems. In
particular, a second dredge or a dragline may be needed to strip off the overburden prior to the gold
dredge being able to operate. Even then, a gold dredge is fairly indiscriminate, and thus if a barren
zone separates a pay-layer the entire thickness is dredged and processed, with consequent dilution of
the original grade. Incorporation of some overburden is also usual, and for operational reasons a
dredge may need to dredge through a low-grade area whereas a dry mine can more easily mine
around it. A further operational problem is that often in Mongolia, as elsewhere, the richest placer
tends to rest upon the underlying bedrock or inside the first 50cm or so of its weathered surface. A
dredge needs to recover this material. A special difficulty can occur if the oversize is too large
compared with the size of the dredge buckets, and thus big boulders and big pieces of broken rock
will be left behind or dropped from the bucket, thus a carpet of boulders and broken rock may
accumulate on the bottom of the dredge pond, complicating further excavation.
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Mongolrostsvestmet Dredge in Zaamar Goldfield

The Mongolrostvestmet dredge is active in the Zaamar Goldfield in Tov Aimag. The
dredge is mining placer gold from the floodplain and lowermost terraces of the Tuul River in
the Baikal catchment. The owner and operator of the gold dredge is Mongolrostvestmet
Corporation which was established in 1973, and is one of the worlds largest producers of
fluorspar (CaF2). It has diversified into coal mining, gold mining and exploration and mining of
other metals such as molybdenum, silver and tungsten.

Fig.4:

rear view of Mongolrosvestmet gold dredge showing disposal of coarse and fine tailings.

The dredge is a Russian-made bucket-line dredge manufactured in Irkutsk, and it became

operational in the mid-1990s after a 10-month construction and assembly period. The dredge has a
displacement of 1,500 tons, and a maximum reach (depth) of 12m although the average operating
depth is about 7m. The dredge has 77 250-litre buckets on a chain, and a dredging design capacity of
1.2 million m3 a year. The rated capacity is 350m3/hour, with 1,800kW of on-board power and a
nominal power load of 700-800kW. Power is supplied by the electric grid. Including dredge crew,
dragline, goldroom, and workshops, about 500 people are employees including 50 Russians. Prior to
dredging, overburden is stripped off by a Russian-made dragline with a 11m3 bucket and a long
boom. Mining operations include the dredge, 2 water monitors and one scrubber. Gold recovery is
by traditional Russian sluice boxes designed for continuous operation.
The entire operation averages 12 kilos of gold per day, and the original in-situ reserves
were about 20 tons in a placer deposit with an average grade of about 0.87g/m3 with sporadic
nugget anomalies between 20 and 30 g/m3. However the placer includes significant fine gold.
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Bayangol Dredge & Dragline in Zaamar Goldfield

The Bayangol is Mongolias newest gold dredge was launched in August 2000. It was
ultimately financed with private foreign capital. The Bayangol dredge is active in the Zaamar
Goldfield in Tov Aimag. The dredge is mining placer gold from the floodplain and lower terrace of
the Bayangol valley, a side-valley of the Tuul River in the Baikal catchment. The deposit is 6.6km
long and varied from 80 to 800m wide, averaging 253m.
The Bayangol dredge was formerly known as the Hailaast dredge after the original
owners of the project, the 90% State-owned Hailaast Shareholding Company. The company
signed a contract with the dredge manufacturer IZTM in Irkutsk, Russia on 14th March 1997
(amended 15th May 1998), but by 1st October 1998 the project had run into problems. Originally
7m US$ finance had been obtained from the Sumito Corporation of Japan though the Central
Bank of Mongolia (Mongol Bank) with the support of the Government of Mongolia, at an
interest rate of 7-8% per year very favourable terms in Mongolia where loans from local
commercial banks are typically 4-8% PER MONTH. After 2m US$ had been paid as an
advance, the financing ceased for various reasons. Thus Hailaast Shareholding Company did not
actually complete and launch the dredge, but had partly assembled the dredge on-site. The partly
assembled dredge together with the Mining License were then privatised.
Today, the owners and operators of the gold dredge are Golden East Co.Ltd., a USAregistered private company with Russian owners and Russian crew.

Fig.5:

Gold dredge Bayangol in Zaamar Goldfield in August 2000 (Photo: Golden East Co. Ltd.).

The Bayangol dredge is a Russian-made bucket-line dredge, manufactured by ITZM in

Irkutsk, model Draga D 250 M and it became operational in August 2000 after a prolonged
construction and assembly period. The dredge is 5-storeys high, 44m long and 18m wide, with a
draught of 3.2m, and a maximum reach (depth) of 8m. The dredge has 73 buckets on a chain,
scooping 250m3/hour. The dredge has a design capacity of excavating 800,000 to 1 million m3
of material a year. The Bayangol dredge is claimed to be able to pay for itself in 6 months. Of
great significance, the dredge is designed to operate at air temperatures as low as -25C. The
dredge is intended to operate 24-hours a day with a crew of 7 per shift.
The deposit holds 6.5 tons of placer gold, recoverable in 8 years, and the proposed
dredge area covers 1,400 hectares of the Tuul River floodplain. All production is expected to be
sold to the Mongol Bank (= Mongolias central bank).
Prior to dredging, overburden is stripped off by 2 Russian-made draglines (ESH-6/45) with
a 11m3 bucket, and a 70m long boom, capable of removing 1.8-2 million m3 of overburden a year.
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Mongolrostvestmet Dredges in Yeroo Goldfield

Two more dredges owned by Mongolrosvestmet Corporation are active in the Yeroo
Goldfield in Selenge Aimag. The dredges are mining placer gold from the floodplain of the
Yaroo River in the Lake Baikal catchment.
The 2 Yaroo dredges are Russian-made bucket-line dredges, manufactured in Irkutsk.
Both the dredges were bought second-hand and one appears to be about 25 years old and the
other about 15 years old. The dredges became operational in the 1990s. Currently one dredge
has mined out its reserves and is expected to be relocated to another mining site soon, whereas
the second dredge still has 2 years of reserves to mine.
One dredge has a displacement of 1,470 tons and is designed to process 350m3/hour, at
a rate of up to 40 buckets per minute, using buckets of 250 litres capacity (approximately
0.35m3). The pontoon height is 3.5m and the dredge is capable of excavating 12m deep. Power
is supplied by an onboard electric motor of 1,600 KWt, with average working of 833KWt. Gold
recovery is by Russian-made sluices.
The second dredge has a displacement of 1,510 tons and differs in having more
powerful electrics (1,70KWt, averaging 1,100KWt), and is equipped with Russian-made simple
jigs. The performance of the jigs is expected to be better than a sluice system.

Fig.6: Rear view of Mongolrosvestmet gold dredge in the Yeroo Goldfield in 1998, showing covered
boom enclosing conveyor with oversize, and launder chute discharging fines from the sluices. (Photo:
Mongolrosvestmet JSC)

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English-made Dredge in Berleg Goldfield

An English-made bucket-dredge is located in Mining License A-104 in the Berleg
Goldfield in Selenge Aimag. The dredge is on-site but has yet to be assembled. It is intended to
mine placer gold from the floodplain and lower terraces of the Yeroo River. The owners of the
gold dredge appears to be a local company, Tsamb Khokh Tenger Ltd.

Fig.7: Buckets of English dredge in Berleg Goldfield, awaiting assembly.

(Photographer: Iain Barclay, September 2000)

The English dredge is in many ways remarkable. It is a British-made bucket-line dredge,

manufactured in 1894, more than a 100 years ago according to local staff. The manufacturers
plate is visible: Ransomes Sims & Jefferies Engineers Ipswich England(Fig.6.).

Fig.8: Cast iron nameplate of the English manufacture of the dredge. Photo: August 2000.
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The antiquity of the dredge is also indicated by its riveted construction. The dredge was
apparently purchased second-hand in Russia where presumably it had been active for many
decades as a gold dredge or less likely as a normal civil engineering dredge.

Fig.9: Riveted construction of the English dredge in the Berleg Goldfield. Note severe corrosion pitting.

The English dredge arrived on-site in 1997 and will require extensive refurbishment.
According to one bucket-dredge expert, this is probably unrealistic and would probably prove
too be more expensive than purchasing a new dredge.

Fig.10: Winches and pulleys of the English dredge in Berleg Goldfield, awaiting assembly.
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A special feature of the English dredge is the presence of large structural timbers as part
of the strengthening of the sub-deck structure.

Fig.11: Timbers in sub-deck structure of English dredge.

(Photographer: Iain Barclay, August 2000)

The exact dimensions of the English dredge are not unclear, but it is designed to use
buckets each of 4m3 capacity on a chain.

Number of Gold Dredges

Currently there are 4 gold dredges operational in Mongolia all built in Russia, with a 5th
English-built dredge on-site awaiting to be re-assembled. The main areas using gold dredges are
the Zaamar Goldfield in the steppe zone west of Ulaanbaatar, and the Yeroo Goldfield in the
forest-steppe transition north of Ulaanbaatar.
In the short-term, our research indicates that the number of gold dredges is set to
increase. One new large gold dredge is planned for Zaamar, and the introduction over a period
of maybe as many as a dozen small dredges in northern Mongolia is predicted, due to the
current placer mines having largely exhausted those parts of placer deposits amenable to dry
mining. They are now struggling to recover gold from beneath the water table by pumping out
pit-by-pit. It is anticipated that by the end of 2001, many such mines will become unworkable
unless they introduce small dredges.
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Special Environmental Impacts of the Gold Dredges

The severe environmental impacts of placer gold mining is described by Farrington
(2000, this volume) for the Zaamar Goldfield in Mongolia. Impacts of equal severity are
apparent in other, less-famous, goldfields in Mongolia.
The following discussion focuses on technical design aspects of the existing dredges
and their consequent environmental impacts.

a)

Overall Design of Gold Dredges

The gold dredges in operation in Mongolia are a natural progression of well-proven

traditional designs, but it is clear that the designs, although antiquated, are highly profitable in
placer gold mining in the local situation. The use of spuds for steerage rather than cable-andwinch is of special significance. Furthermore the design of the on-board mineral separation
plant is not very different from that commonplace world-wide 50 years or more ago, when
mercury (Hg) was acceptable to assist in maximising high % recovery of fine gold. There is
however no evidence for mercury having been, or being, used in the Mongolian gold dredges,
but it is important for independent verification to take place.

b)

Gold Recovery by Gold Dredges

The gold dredges use rotating sluice boxes ideal for continuous operation. However, although
there have been some advances in design in recent decades, a sluice box is still a sluice box and are
not much improved on those of centuries ago, such as those depicted by Agricola (1556). The high %
losses of gold by sluice boxes is a well-documented phenomenon, as noted to researchers such as
Reaburn (1925), and more recently Wang & Poling (1983) who produced the reference chart below:

Sluice

Fig 12: % recovery of gold particles by a riffled sluice (adapted from Wang & Poling 1983).

A major improvement on a sluice box would be a conventional jig, which uses a harmonic
wave movement with the UP-stroke a mirror image of the DOWN-stroke. This improvement has been
documented 15 years ago by Wang and Poling (1985) who produced the following comparison chart:
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Conventional Jig

Sluice

Fig 13: % recovery of different size gold particles by a conventional jig

compared with a riffled sluice (adapted from Wang & Poling 1983).
The chart shows that while there is not much difference between sluice boxes and
conventional jigs for gold particles of 1mm or larger, the difference becomes dramatic for
smaller-sized gold. For example, a conventional jig recovers 125% more gold with a grain size
of 10-1 mm. The implication is that the gold dredges in use at present in Mongolia are losing a
lot of gold, especially fine gold, because they are using sluice boxes.
A significant improvement on a conventional jig is the saw-tooth jig which has a fast
UP-stroke and a relatively slow DOWN-stroke. The saw-tooth jig was introduced by IHC Holland
to Malaysian and Indonesian jumbo dredges in the late 1950s and a much-improved recovery of
tin ore (cassiterite SnO2) was demonstrated by Nio (1978) over that of conventional jigs. The
results of Nio (1978) for cassiterite are superimposed on the graph below:
Saw-tooth Jig

Conventional Jig

Sluice

Fig.14: Comparison of % performance of saw-tooth jig with conventional jigs and sluices.
Adapted from Nio (1978) and Wang & Polling (1983).

Caution is needed in interpreting Fig.9 as the test was for cassiterite not gold, but the
superior performance of saw-tooth jigs over conventional jigs and riffled sluices is clear.
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The performance of the mineral processing plants on board Russian gold dredges has
been a matter of debate. The most recent study is by Sheveleva et al. (2000) of Irgiredmet JSC
of Irkutsk. They draw attention to the actual gold content of placers in Russia, particularly those
containing fine gold, being highly different from the content indicated in exploration and
production documents. Placers containing middle-sized gold, that are traditionally under
development, generally contain a lot of fine gold (up to 50%). Sheveleva et al. (2000) report
results of control sampling of Russian placer deposits which are under development by
Primorzoloto, Zabaikalzoloto, Yakutzoloto, Yeniseizoloto, Amurzoloto and Uralzoloto
companies and state: the actual excess of the fine gold amount over the gold amount indicated
in the balanced reserves is 150 to 300%. This is due to losses of this particle size gold when
sampling exploratory workings by traditional panning method. Igriredmet JSC carried out
research on the Dzhalina river placer in the Amur region of Russia. This demonstrated that the
Russian 250-I dredge was recovering only 22.5% of the gold, and that the exploratory panning
had recovered a very similar figure 23%. The bulk f the deposit proved to be fine gold
(Sheveleva et al. 2000).
While the gold dredges in Mongolia are capable of high % recovery of coarse gold, they
are not designed to recover more than 40-50% of the fine gold. It is difficult to envisage how the
dredges at Zaamar can be recovering more than 70-80% of the gold content overall, even though
the gold dredges are highly profitable. The provisional conclusion is that the 4 active gold
dredges (2 at Zaamar and 2 at Berleg) are estimated to be losing, between them, about 1 ton of
gold per year, with a value of 9million US$ a year, equivalent to about 10 US$ per household in
Mongolia. Retrofitting of saw-tooth jigs would self-finance within a season, and operating costs
would remain unchanged. Thus the profitability of the gold dredges, especially in Zaamar,
would increase substantially, and the Mongolian Government would benefit considerably from
the additional royalties and other taxes.
An interrelated issue is that the lost gold might in a few cases be sufficient to render
commercially viable the re-dredging of the same deposits using high % gold recovery systems.
Given the substantial environmental impact of the dredges, it would seem reasonable to
require the high environmental price to be offset somewhat by recovering the maximum % of
gold content, and thus increase the overall economic return.
Furthermore, if the gold dredges were retrofitted with high % gold recovery systems then
part of the increased operational profitability could be devoted to rehabilitation of the areas already
devastated by dredges and draglines, and for the first time embark upon phased restoration.
However an important deterrent to retrofitting the dredges is the very high cost of capital
in Mongolia, with local commercial banks offering loans at 4 to 7% PER MONTH. Under these
circumstances, it would be better to agree for a tax holiday conditional upon retrofitting the
dredges to the satisfaction of the Minerals Resources Authority and the Ministry of Nature &
Environment.

c)

Environmental Impact of Tailings Discharge System

All the gold dredges working in Mongolia use an old method of discharging the tailings,
the same basic concept of half a century or more ago. The fines (soil, clay, silt and sand) are
discharged to the bottom of the dredge pond, and the coarser fraction (stones, boulders and
rocks) is dumped on top. This is the opposite sequence to natural sediments, and can render
problematic the rehabilitation of the new land surface due to the lack of fines. This oldfashioned method was for decades traditional in dredge placer mining in Central Sumatra in
Indonesia, where the new land surface can be seen to be still largely barren some 70-80 years
later. Of course by dumping the coarse material on top it was a reasonable way of burying the
mercury lost from gold recovery in the sluices. As modern gold dredges should not use mercury,
the necessity of depositing the tailings in this environmentally-inappropriate manner should no
longer apply, certainly not in Mongolia.
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Gold dredges that incorporate design improvements of the last 30 years usually deal
with tailings in the following manner. A Stacker Belt is a boom protruding from the rear of a
dredge with a conveyor carrying the coarse material to the waters edge, and a pipeline strapped
to the boom carries the fines in a slurry to a boom-extension where a hydrocyclone system
releases the fines on top of the coarse, and recirculates recovered water back to the dredge pond.
This arrangement is now regarded as conventional but is not used in Mongolia.
Retrofitting the existing gold dredges in Mongolia with tailings chutes of the above
configuration is affordable, given the high profitability of the dredges, and would not increase
operating costs significantly.

Fig.15:
Rear view of Mongolrosvestmet dredge in Zaamar goldfield, showing boom containing
conveyor for disposal of oversize, the boom enclosed as protection against severe cold. To the right, near
to the waterline, is a chute dumping fines from the sluices. A second similar sluice is just visible to the
left.

Fig.16: Close-up of Mongolrosvestmet

gold dredge showing one of the two
chutes depositing fines and water that
has passed through the sluices into the
dredge pond.
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Fig.17: Mongolrosvestmet gold dredge, mining from right to left, after the dragline stripped-off the overburden.
In this example, the overburden extends below the water table, and thus the drag-line has created a muddy pond
ahead (left) of the advancing dredge. The new island at the rear of the dredge is due to the swell factor causing
the volume of tailings to exceed the volume of the in-situ placer. (photographer: Robin Grayson, 1997).

Fig.18: End result of the passage of the Monrosvestmet dredge at Zaamar, with creation of a series of arcuate
mounds with large stones (oversize) on top of the fines. This artificial landscape was formerly the floodplain of
the Tuul River. (photographer: John Farrington, August 2000).

Fig.19: Closer view of Monrosvestmet dredge at Zaamar, mining from right to left. The fine-grained tailings
are discharged by a pair of chutes, one of which is visible (thin red arrow), and the large tailings (oversize) are
discharged by a conveyor on a boom (large red arrow). This causes the fines to be buried beneath a thick layer
of large stones. (photographer: K.Dendinas, 1997).
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d)

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Environmental Impact of Spud System

The gold dredges in Mongolia, at least those in the Zaamar Goldfield, each use 2 spuds
to position and move the dredge. A spud in laymans terms is a long metal pole at the rear of the
dredge that is dropped vertically to embed firmly in the floor of the dredge pond, and thus serve as
a rigid anchor. The spuds keep the dredge in position. One spud is used for manoeuvring the
dredge by swinging left and right upon the spud, and the second spud is auxiliary. Unfortunately
the Spud System means that the gold dredge is rather limited in its means of progression, moreor-less confined to a 30o arc movement at the cutting end, the arc being twice the length of the
dredge. Thus a 50m long dredge will mine its way forward in a 100m arc.
An inescapable result of this method of dredging is that the rear end of the gold dredge,
where tailings are discharged, is pinned to the floor of the dredge pond by the spud. Thus the
large volume of tailings generated by a 100m cutting swing are all destined to be expelled from
the dredges rear end in a relatively small area dictated by the spud. A large and difficult-torestore arcuate mound results. Only when the 100m cut is complete the spud lifted, the dredge
moved forward and the spud once more dropped.
A technical disadvantage of the spud system is that the dredge has to remine part of its
own tailings on the return swing, sometimes up to 20% when dredging at the maximum depth.
Large modern gold dredges manoeuvre without recourse to spuds, and instead use
cables from shore to shore and electrically powered winches to achieve and maintain the desired
position. Cutting in an arc is dispensed with, and the tailings are dispersed in a much more
acceptable landform, albeit with a tendency to be in long but gentle ridges.
The cable-and-winch system is more efficient than the spud system, allowing a much longer
sidewards cut (creating broader dredge ponds) and fuller use of each bucket square-on (reducing
differential wear on the buckets). Furthermore the spud system can stress the bucket line to such a
degree that there is a risk of the bucket line jumping out of the guide tumbler with consequent damage
and long delays. Thus the cable-and-winch system is now standard in most dredge situations.
Unfortunately, conversion of a gold dredge from a spud system to cable-and-winch is often
technically difficult, requiring substantial reconstruction, and it seems unlikely that such
modification can be done at reasonable cost for the active gold dredges in Mongolia. However the
Ministry of Nature & Environment (MNE) and the Minerals Resources Authority of Mongolia
(MRAM) should insist that all new dredges be built with the cable-and-winch system.

e)

Environmental Impact of Drag-lines associated with Dredges

The environmental impact of a gold dredge is substantial, but the impact of a drag-line
stripping off the overburden can be higher. This is because the function of the drag-line is to shift the
overburden SIDEWARDS out of the way of the advancing dredge, and thus the drag-line causes a
permanent and substantial impact on the landscape because it builds a linear ridge of spoil mounds
parallel to the dredge pond. Observation shows that the drag-line does not return after the dredging
to attempt to restore the landform by dragging the spoil mound back on top of the tailings after the
dredge has passed. Apart from the very high cost of doing so, access by a drag-line to the bank of the
old dredge pond is fraught with operational problems and is not always possible.
To mitigate the very large environmental impact of drag-lines, one promising option is to
dispense with the use of drag-lines altogether and instead consider using a cutter-suction dredge to
remove the overburden ahead of the advancing gold dredge. The capital and operating cost of a
cutter-suction dredge is comparable to that of a drag-line. Instead of tall overburden mounds being
heaped and abandoned, the cutter-suction dredge coverts the overburden to slurry which is
pumped onshore to the desired place and thus low mounds can be produced, more visually
acceptable and more amenable to revegetating quickly and permanently.

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While putting back the land surface to its original contours after dredging is desirable
it is not in practice achievable, even if the mine operator is willing and substantial funds are
available. This is due to the swell factor the increased volume of material once disturbed by
excavating it, due to decompaction and, if wetted, absorption of water accompanied by
expansion of some minerals, notably clays. Unlike other forms of open-pit mining such as coal
mining or sand & gravel mining, the volume of gold removed from the site is extremely small
negligible in fact. Thus the swell factor is the determining factor in landform restoration. The
swell factor at the Toson Terrace in the Zaamar Goldfield has been carefully researched by
Gary Beaudoin (2000, this volume) and estimated to be 44.63%, 59.49% and 52.75% for the 3
resource blocks tested. A range from 35% to 70% is apparent in Mongolia.
Thus, whether or not mining is by dredge or open-pit, a significant increase in volume
of disturbed materials results. If the mine site is narrow or badly organised, then the end result is
a muck-bound site, i.e. the greatly increased volume of material impedes further mining and
prevents restoration to the original landform.
A further consideration is the recompaction factor for spoil mounds and backfilled
dredge ponds and dry pits. Recompaction is due to the pressure exerted by overlying dumped
material and is generally time-dependent and further subsidence of the surface should occur
with time. Differential compaction frequently results in a rolling landform, especially if
dewatering of muds has occurred or if the backfilled material is of varying composition. Where
the rolling new landform is close to the water-table it is prone to create pools with hydroseres
gradations from open water through marginal marsh/fen to grassland or scrub.

Potential for Wildlife Gain from Gold Dredges

The potential for wildlife gain in the placer goldfields of Mongolia is considerable but has
not yet been investigated. Whilst losses of landforms, landscape history, soil profiles, grazing and
archaeological remains cannot be mitigated for, at least not on-site, the placer goldfields do offer
opportunities for some wildlife gain notably in goldfields where a gold dredge is operating. A
gold dredge offers some opportunity for creation of a wetland complex of habitats including open
water and marshes, mimicking artificial ox-bow meander cut-offs (billibongs) together with fens,
reed beds and hydroseres from open water to scrub and forest. Careful dredging can create islands
inaccessible to predators and livestock and thus havens for water-birds and plants.

Fig.20: Major environmental disturbance caused by the combination of the Mongolrostvestmet gold
dredge and associated drag-line. Dispensing with the drag-line and using a cutter-suction dredge would
reduce the impact. Backfilling of the dredge ponds with the overburden mounds would be very expensive
due to access by dragline now being blocked by dredge pools and unstable wet ground. The scope for
creating a wetland mosaic with potential for significant wildlife gain is apparent.
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To the south in the Zaamar Goldfield, where gold mining is already intense and
expected to increase markedly in the short-term, an assessment of potential wildlife gain should be
made, in which the present and planned dredges may have a central role. The semi-arid climate
and overgrazing of the steppe grasslands and grazing out of fire-damaged forests preventing
natural regeneration all indicate how sensitive the Zaamar region is to disturbance by mining.
Thus every opportunity for refocusing the impacts of dredges, drag-lines and dry-pit mining to
achieve wildlife gain should be sought. In particular, to create a habitat mosaic of islands, marshes
and open water able to sustain hydroseres of vegetation with cover and sustenance for mammals,
birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish and invertebrates. The urgent need for a baseline ecological survey
on which such proposals can be based is apparent from the compilation and analysis of the
impacts of mining at Zaamar by Dallas (1999) and Farrington (2000).
To the north in the Yeroo Goldfield, the situation is rather different being in the foreststeppe transition zone, and with marshes already widespread even in minor valleys. However,
due to the wet conditions, many placers are below or at the water-table but too small or
discontinuous to merit dredging. Instead the placer is mined in discrete blocks which are
pumped out, mined and then allowed to flood, the mining activity being transferred to the next
block. In this manner a string of marshes and pools are created which are fairly quickly
recolonised and revegetated. In this area, the humidity and rainfall is significantly higher than at
Zaamar and thus the spoil mounds in some places become naturally reforested, assisted by the
swell factor permitting the spoil to absorb rainwater and clay breaks in the spoil to create
perched water tables accessible to the root systems of sapling trees.
Thus in broad terms, achieving wildlife gain in the gold mining areas in the foreststeppe transition is relatively easy to achieve with minimal effort or expense, but in the more
steppe-dominated regions such as Zaamar, wildlife gain will be more difficult, and the role of
the gold dredges may be critical to overall success or failure.

Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Miss Khaltar Khandsuren for assistance in gathering information and
translation of documents, and to John Farrington of U.S. Peace Corps for proof-reading the manuscript,
and supplying a rare photograph at Zaamar.

References
Agricola (1556)
De Re Metallica
Beaudoin, Gary (2000)
Gold Test on the Toson Terrace Placer, Zaamar Goldfield of Mongolia
World Placer Journal (this issue). (in English)
Dallas, W. (1999)
An Assessment of Environmental Impact Issues and Issues Relating to Gold Mining in
the Zaamar Region, Mongolia: Executive Summary. World Bank. Washington DC. 13 pp. (in English)
Farrington, John (2000) Environmental problems of placer gold mining in the Zaamar Goldfield,
Mongolia. World Placer Journal (this issue). (in English)
Grayson, Robin (2000) The rise and fall of Java Gold Corporation (Ontario) in Mongolia
World Placer Journal (this issue). (in English)
Grayson, Robin (2000)
The failure of Java Gold Corporation in placer gold mining in Mongolia
World Placer Journal (this issue). (in English)
Grayson, Robin (2000)
Java Gold Corporation and its associated companies in Mongolia.
Report prepared on behalf of JVAG shareholders. 179 pages. (in English)
Reaburn (1925) Mining Magazine, London. (in English)
Shevelva, E.A., A.I. Popov & N.A. Rozhkova (2000) On the problem of borehole sampling of placers
containing fine gold, with the placer of Dzhalinda River as an example. Abstracts of the XII
International Symposium on Placer and Weathered Rock Deposits, held in Moscow, 25-29
September 2000. p.172-173. (in English)
Wang, Weigian & Poling, George W. (1983) Methods for recovery of fine placer gold.
The Canadian Mining & Metallurgical Bulletin, December 1983. (in English)
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