Fort Knox: 5 million ounces strong: interior gold mine exceeding expectations.

• Author: Stricker, Julie
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: MINING

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The Fort Knox gold mine reached a milestone in 2011 that wasn't even on the radar when the mine went into production in 1996: it poured its 5 millionth ounce of gold on April 6.

When production began, the mine, owned by Canadian mining giant Kinross Gold Corp., had only identified 4.1 million ounces of provable reserves. Operations plans called for operations to cease in 2009. Today, thanks to further exploration and gains in technology, Fort Knox has far exceeded those early projections and nearly doubled its expected lifespan.

Another 3.8 million ounces of gold reserves have been identified--on top of the 5 million already poured. That means mining operations are slated to continue through 2018, with ore recovery continuing through 2021, according to community affairs director Lorna Shaw.

HISTORICAL MINING DISTRICT

The open-pit mine is located 25 miles northeast of Fairbanks in the Fish Creek valley, which has been mined for more than a century. The 12-square-mile site, a third of which is actively being mined, is dominated by the huge pit, which falls in 30-foot-high benches to a depth of 1,400 feet. From the top, the mine's fleet of giant trucks and outsized dozers look like children's toys.

It's mining on a huge scale.

"Everything is measured in tons and millions, all very big numbers, until you get to the final product, which is measured in ounces," Shaw said. "The economics of scale are what makes it possible to operate here." Fort Knox produced 349,729 ounces of gold in 2010.

Across the valley is the Walter Creek heap leach facility, which went online in 2009. To the southeast is the tailings pond, bounded by a 338-foot-tall dam, which is being raised another 52 feet. Behind the dam is a lake full of grayling and burbot. A steady stream of outsized trucks rumbles by on the left side of the berm-bordered roads, moving ore from the pit to the ore stockpile to the crusher or the heap leach facility.

MICROSCOPIC GOLD

One thing you can't see at Fort Knox is the gold, which is microscopic. It takes a ton of ore to produce 0.025 ounces of gold. Each giant truckload of ore contains between five ounces and seven ounces of gold. The mine has a fleet of about 30 ore trucks--the smallest is 150 tons and the largest is 240 tons. The fires alone are 13 feet tall and the drivers sit high above the ground. "It's like driving a two-story house from a second-story bedroom window," Shaw said.

The huge scale of operations teamed...