Bornuur site is located in Tuv aimag120km to the north of Ulaanbaatar, the Capital City of Mongolia. It has primary gold mining and processing as the main activity for Artisanal and small scale miners. The mining is done in Sujigtei Mountain through the establishment of a multi party MOU between, (Centerra Gold, Concession owner, The Ministry of Mineral Resources, SDC, the Bornuur local government and the Bornuur Miners Association) in which the Miners Association has been granted land rights by Centeraa gold to carry out mining activities. The gold ore is processed at the Bornuur Gold Processing plant using mercury free gold processing technologies. A total of 65 partnerships (196 miners) are registered with the Bornuur mining association of which 100 miners are currently working in Sujigtei and supply approximately 3 tons of gold ore to the plant on a daily basis producing 100 grams of gold. The mercury free ore processing plant provides milling services for miners from other aimags such as Omni Gobi, don Gobi, bayankhongkor, Selenge and Bulgan. Please download: detailed information.

After Bornuur plant there was an identified need to build a much smaller plant with less complex machines to suit local conditions. It was also needful to have a plant where the project has full control and can build up models to suit Mongolia ASM in project aspects of institutional, community development, technical and environmental. According to the ASM temporary regulations miners should send their ores to centralized processing centers and for Mandal it means they have to send ore to Bornuur which is 70km away increasing transport costs. Mandal offered a good opportunity to address the above needs. Please download: more information.

SAM Project in cooperation with HAMO company is successfully running a pilot gold ore processing plant in Bornuur soum of Tov aimag. The plant uses mercury free technology to recover gold. The gold recovery circuit has been tested under local conditions and recommended as successful. Download its operational information and safety instructions.

The testing plant is installed with jaw crusher, local roller mill for comminution. The primary gold recovery is achieved by a locally fabricated sluice with various caperts which include a vinyl loop, riffled carpet both locally available and a brazilian wollen carpet.The primary concentration equipment include a Chinese shaking table, and iCon (centrifugal concentrator). Secondary concentration without to recover gold without use of mercury is done by use of Holman shaking table and the results have been successful. The test is being done by more applicable, simple, and improved gravitation method that is free of any chemicals e.g. mercury and cyanide. The test is intended for identification of environmentally friendly processing practice that is the most applicable for ore processing in Bornuur area and test ores from other areas in Mongolia.It is alos intended to provide a small scale mineral processing model that can be adopted throughout Mongolia in the future. Future activities will involve installation of hammer mill, different carpet tests, perfomance comparison of different gravity recovery equipment and intevention on the mining sites on mining techniques, equipment and safety and equipment.sociation in the Soum. Please download a detailed report.

Under an extensive inspection over identification and neutralization of tailings and wastes from chemicals in mining sites including ASM sites, a working group led by the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. M. Enkhbold, visited ASM sites in Bornuur and Jargalan Sums of Tov Aimag on March 26-27, 2008.
While being in Bornuur Sum, the working group and an inspection group led by B. Saran, Head of Environment, geological, mining and radiation inspection department, SSIA, visited ASM laboratory in Khargana gold mine that was set up under SAM project support. 10 samples taken from different mining site tailings and wastes were tested by the laboratory equipment "HANNA" and no cyanide was recovered from the samples. For verifying the analysis results, a sample that contained 0.1 % of cyanide grade was tested and the equipment correctly showed its per cent.