Worth The Grind, Refined To Shine!

Romans 5:6-11

According to the website howstuffworks.com, the entire process of gold mining can be broken down roughly into four steps: prospecting, mining, extracting and refining. OceanaGold, a Waihi operation, goes into great detail concerning the gold mining process. This process includes:
1. Mining – open pit and underground
-To define the ore from the waste rock, samples are taken and assayed. Assay results are used to mark out areas of ore and waste rock, which are mined separately. Some of the harder areas require blasting to loosen the rock prior to excavation by hydraulic diggers. Dump trucks haul the rock to the primary crushers in the open pit or to the ore stockpiles from underground.
2. Crushing
-The primary crushers located at the open pit mine site, receive ore and waste at separate times. They break the larger rocks down to a size suitable for transport on the conveyor belt.
3. Transport
-A rubber belted conveyor transports the ore and waste rock from the open pit, approximately two kilometres, via a tunnel through Union Hill, to the mill and waste rock embankments. Large electromagnets remove any steel debris excavated from the old Martha Mine workings.
4. Grinding and sizing
-Ore from both open pit and underground is stockpiled separately at the mill before being fed into a S.A.G. mill with lime, water and steel balls. The larger particles from this mill are returned to the S.A.G. mill for more grinding. The finer particles receive more grinding in a ball mill, and are size classified to give a final product of 80% < microns. See more detail on grinding and sizing
5. Leaching and adsorption
-A slurry of ground ore, water and a weak cyanide solution is fed into large steel leach tanks where the gold and silver are dissolved. Following this leaching process the slurry passes through six adsorption tanks containing carbon granules which adsorb the gold and silver. This process removes 93% of the gold and 70% of the silver.
-6. Elution and electrowinning
The loaded carbon is fed into an elution column where the bullion is washed off. The barren carbon is recycled. The wash solution—pregnant electrolyte—is passed through electrowinning cells where gold and silver is won onto stainless steel cathodes.
7. Bullion production
-The loaded cathodes are rinsed to yield a gold and silver bearing sludge which is dried, mixed with fluxes and put into the furnace. After several hours the molten material is poured into a cascade of moulds producing bars of doré bullion.
8. Water treatment
-Some water from dewatering the mine, from the embankment underdrains and decant water from the tailings pond is recycled for use in the grinding circuit. Excess water is pumped to the water treatment plant and treated to the required standards before discharge into the Ohinemuri River.
9. Tailings disposal
-Waste rock from the open pit mine is used to build the embankment structures. The embankments retain the tailings slurry in a pond where solids settle and compact. Water is decanted off and used in the process plant or treated before it is discharged.

Companies around the globe, work the looooooong mining process for years, to recover precious and valuable ore from beneath the rocks. In the eyes of men, the value of gold (and other precious elements) is worth sacrificing days of hard labor, to gain only a little at a time. In addition, the benefits men gain from mining gold include jewelry, finances, such as gold bars or bullion, conductor for electronics, computer edge connectors and memory chips, dental fillings or crowns, as part of a radioactive solution for some medical diagnoses, awards or decorative gilding.

Everyone born into the earth, take on a sinful nature, and are shaped in iniquity. It’s an unfortunate circumstance, but the cause of such a curse was due to the fall of the first man. While men are inherently unclean, they still have hidden value that comes to surface once they allow Jesus to perform the mining process of their hearts.

For centuries, men have sacrifice time and hard labor to possess gold, but Jesus sacrificed His very life, so that the true value of God’s greatest creation could be revealed. Humans are by far, God’s most prized creation, and once a man or woman fully commits themselves to God’s authority, He will literally reveal their shine to all the world.

Believers are the most precious commodities in the earth, and while gold, silver, and platinum may hold some value, those cannot begin to compare to a Saint of the living God. Giving His life on the cross, was an extremely hard thing for Jesus to experience, but all the suffering, shame, pain, and agony He went through, was well worth it, so that the true worth of God’s people could finally come to light.

Keep your chin up… it’s easier to see Heaven that way,

Ell

Wait For It…

Jeremiah 27:1-11

Words of prophecy, can oftentimes be compared to seed time, and harvest. After seeds are planted into the ground, the most important element in the germination process is, time. Once a seed is buried, it can be easily be forgotten, as time passes, but the moment a bud begins to rise from the soil, it makes its presence known, and fulfills the purpose for which it was planted.

Many words were prophesied throughout the Scriptures, and some of those prophecies have already come to pass, whereas others are still awaiting fulfillment. In the book of Genesis, God looked upon the earth, and was ashamed of how corrupt it had become, so God told Noah, “The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” Although God spoke those words, He didn’t execute them until many years after. Our text gives another example, when the Word of the Lord came unto the prophet Jeremiah, and spoke concerning yokes being put upon certain nations, but this prophecy was not made known until 20 years after Jeremiah received it.

God’s Words were never spoken in vain, nor will they ever return void. “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:11). Hold fast to the promises of God, and never think He’s forgotten about you. Sometimes, things must play put accordingly, until the appropriate time, for God’s Word to manifest.

Keep your chin up… it’s easier to see Heaven that way,

Ell

Trust The Process

Psalm 130

Pray – Wait – Receive. This is the typical process the children of God experience when seeking answers from the Father. Before coming to God with any request, we must first determine if what we desire is aligned with God’s will for us. Children ask their parents for everything, and most of what they whine for, are things they don’t need. A good parent knows how to ignore futile requests, for the ones that are actually relevant. Although God may hear all our prayers, He will only answer the ones that will make our lives better, but for His purposes. Selfish prayers are never answered, and God is too wise to give us things that would draw us away from Himself. When we pray, let’s be certain that what we ask for, will not only benefit ourselves, but also have an impact on the kingdom of God.

The “waiting game” is the second part of the prayer process. In my most honest opinion, I HATE WAITING! I don’t consider myself a millennial, nor do I openly confess to be amongst the microwave generation, but, I do not enjoy waiting. Waiting for God to answer our prayers is very important, because during these moments, God monitors how we behave, until He decides to respond. I have failed many tests of waiting, and found myself complaining that God was taking too long to assist me, on multiple occasions. Little did I know, God had my answer, before I even prayed, but waited to see if I would wait patiently for His response. Well, I’m grateful for second chances, because from those experiences, I learned to wait on God, no matter what.

The rewards that come from waiting on God are absolutely amazing (ask Joseph, Job, and Daniel, if you don’t believe me)! God knows what we need before we even ask, but He demands constant communication between He and His children, so that healthy rapport can be established, and we will always know His voice, from the enemy’s. God doesn’t need blessings, but we do. “Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them” (Mark 11:24 KJV).

After we pray to God, we are to live as if those prayers are already answered. We should continue living and loving, as God commanded, rather than put our lives on hold, waiting to see if God will answer us. Prayer does work, and although the devil attacks us spiritually, trying to hinder our blessings, God will always answer the prayers of the righteous. “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (James 5:16b KJV).

Walk in love,

Ell