自含砷合碳难处理金矿中提取金的研究─Ⅰ.氨水脱砷-石灰加压氧化-氰化

针对甘肃省坪定金矿含金、砷高、金部分地赋存于脉石、脉石为碱性、属于难选难冶矿的特点，提出了氨水脱砷－石灰加压氧化－氰化新工艺．当原矿含金8．7g／t及13．0％砷时，砷可脱除95％，金可浸出85％．技术及经济指标预计均较满意．     

On the use of lignin-based biopolymer in improving gold and silver recoveries during cyanidation leaching

In the present paper, influence of a lignin-based biopolymer in improving gold and silver recoveries during cyanidation leaching is discussed. Series of laboratory cyanidation leaching testworks at the absences and the presences of the biopolymer were performed under variations of the biopolymer concentration, NaCN concentration, slurry density and particle size distribution. The ore samples used were from Pongkor Gold Mine of PT. Antam, Tbk. in Indonesia. The biopolymer additive was found to reduce slurry viscosity that leads to a higher dissolved oxygen concentration in the leach solution. The testwork results show that the use of biopolymer improves gold and silver recoveries as well as leaching kinetics. At biopolymer dosage of 800 mg/L, the increases of gold and silver recoveries were 4.5% and 6.4%, respectively. The lignin-based biopolymer is able to disperse fine solid particles and stabilizes the ore suspension in the leach-slurry that results in a better contact between the ore and the leaching agents. The effect of biopolymer on the gold and silver recoveries was found to be more significant at lower cyanide dosages. The addition of biopolymer resulted in the increase of cyanide consumption, lowering final pH and higher dissolved iron which is associated with gold-bearing pyrite dissolution. Enhanced dissolution of gold-bearing pyrite at higher dissolved oxygen concentration was found as the major factor that improves gold recovery at the presences of the biopolymer in addition to lowering slurry viscosity that leads to higher dissolved oxygen concentration and effect of fine particles dispersion.     

Arsenopyrite Oxidation with Ozone: Stoichiometry and Kinetics

When the recovery of precious metals by standard cyanidation is less than 80%, the ore is classified as refractory and needs an oxidizing pretreatment before cyanidation. Arsenopyrite is one of the main sulfide matrixes where occurs refractory gold. In this work, the arsenopyrite leaching in acid media was studied using ozone as an oxidizing agent. The results obtained show that arsenopyrite leaching is carried out in a stoichiometric way: one mole of Fe and one mole of S are leached by each mole of As leached. A maximum of 60% arsenopyrite leaching was obtained when 1 g (?25 µm) was submitted to acid leaching in 800 mL of 0.18 M acid solution (either chlorhydric, nitric, or sulfuric acid), mechanically stirred at 800 rpm and with the addition of 1.2 L/min oxygen gas containing 0.079 g O₃/L at 25° for 60 min. Although the apparent activation energy estimated was 4.07 kJ/mol, it is suggested that the system is controlled by chemical reaction.     

Enhanced leachability of gold and silver in cyanide media: Effect of alkaline pre-treatment of jarosite minerals

Composite samples of tailings containing gold (1.35 g/t) and significant amounts of silver (155 g/t) were subjected to batchwise cyanide leaching to assess the feasibility of extracting gold and silver. The tailings are waste solids arising from flotation and leaching operations whereby the flotation product (sphalerite concentrate) is calcined and then solubilised into dilute sulphuric acid solution and eventually sequestered from the electrolyte by electrowinning. Silver and gold are part of the zinc refinery residue, flotation tailings and to a limited extent the calcine leach tailings. Mineralogical results showed that composite tailings are refractory in nature (44% quartz, 17% silico aluminates and 12% jarosites).The concept of enhancing gold and silver recovery from the tailings focused on firstly decomposing the jarosite minerals by alkaline pre-treatment and then secondly leaching with cyanide solution. These two steps ensured that free gold and silver found in the zinc refinery residue and in the jarosite minerals could be leached simultaneously. The composite tailings were treated with Ca(OH)₂ solutions and then heated to 90 °C for 2 h to decompose the silver-bearing mineral (Ag,PbFe₃(SO₄)₂(OH)₆). The alkaline pre-treated tailings were then subjected to cyanide leach tests at different NaCN dosages (2.5–10 kg/t) and particle size (96–200 μm). Without an alkaline pre-treatment stage, leach efficiencies achieved were 41% and 25% for gold and silver, respectively at 40 °C and 8 h mixing time. But, better leach efficiencies (55% for Au, 81% for Ag) were achieved after the feed was pre-treated with Ca(OH)₂. The leaching mechanism of gold was explained by the shrinking sphere model denoted by surface chemical reaction.     

Pretreatment with Ozone for Gold and Silver Recovery from Refractory Ores

In this work ozonization was studied as pretreatment for two Mexican refractory ores in order to increase the gold and silver extraction. Two methods for contacting ozone with the mineral were studied (indirect and direct). The indirect method did not change the precious metals recoveries for mineral sample A, but increased those of mineral B (from 53 to 88% for gold and from 26 to 78% for silver). The direct pretreatment, only tested in mineral A, did not affect gold and silver recoveries but decreased the extraction time from 40 to 24 hours for maximum metal recovery.     

Continuous Laboratory Gold Solvent Extraction from Cyanide Solutions using LIX 79 Reagent

Continuous laboratory solvent extraction of gold from cyanide solutions has been investigated by using LIX 79 guanidine‐based extractant. Different variables that affected the extraction included aqueous pH, extractant concentration and modifier concentration. Extraction isotherms of the aurocyanide complex with respect to the other cyanoanions were compared, and the following order of selectivity was observed: Au > Ag > Cu > Zn > Fe. According to the pH isotherms, aurocyanide can be extracted in alkaline media, and a better separation with respect to other cyano anions was obtained in the pH range 10.5–11.2. From the McCabe‐Thiele diagrams, better recovery was observed when using LIX 79 and tridecanol at 10 vol.‐%. Stripping gold from the loaded organic was carried out at pH > 12 by using NaOH and NaCN solutions. The pilot plant tests indicate that a two‐stage extraction followed by one strip step are more than adequate to obtain an overall process efficiency of 92 %. However, for those cases where copper is present significantly, a copper wash stage is recommended before gold stripping. In this case, stripping of copper is accomplished at a pH 10.8, whereas the gold stripping was done at a pH of 12.0.     

提金尾渣的再利用

对于黄金矿山来说，氰化尾渣中尚有可回收的金、银、铜、铅等有价金属元素。综合回收这些金属，既可以为矿山创造经济效益，同时减少了尾矿对环境的污染，是宝贵的二次资源。     

Long-range effect of cyanide on mercury methylation in a gold mining area in southern Ecuador

Small-scale gold mining in Portovelo-Zaruma, Southern Equador, performed by mercury amalgamation and cyanidation, yields 9-10 t of gold/annum, resulting in annual releases of around 0.65 t of inorganic mercury and 6000 t of sodium cyanide in the local river system. The release of sediments, cyanide, mercury, and other metals present in the ore such as lead, manganese and arsenic significantly reduces biodiversity downstream the processing plants and enriches metals in bottom sediments and biota. However, methylmercury concentrations in sediments downstream the mining area were recently found to be one order of magnitude lower than upstream or in small tributaries. In this study we investigated cyanide, bacterial activity in water and sediment and mercury methylation potentials in sediments along the Puyango river watershed, measured respectively by in-situ spectrophotometry and incubation with ³H-leucine and ²⁰³Hg²⁺.Free cyanide was undetectable (< 1 μg·L^− 1) upstream mining activities, reached 280 μg·L^− 1 a few km downstream the processing plants area and was still detectable about 100 km downstream. At stations with detectable free cyanide in unfiltered water, 50% of it was dissolved and 50% associated to suspended particles. Bacterial activity and mercury methylation in sediment showed a similar spatial pattern, inverse to the one found for free cyanide in water, i.e. with significant values in pristine upstream sampling points (respectively 6.4 to 22 μgC·mg wet weight^− 1·h^− 1 and 1.2 to 19% of total ²⁰³Hg·g dry weight^− 1·day^− 1) and undetectable downstream the processing plants, returning to upstream values only in the most distant downstream stations. The data suggest that free cyanide oxidation was slower than would be expected from the high water turbulence, resulting in a long-range inhibition of bacterial activity and hence mercury methylation. The important mercury fluxes resultant from mining activities raise concerns about its biomethylation in coastal areas where many mangrove areas have been converted to shrimp farming.     

Effect of the composition of some sulphide minerals on cyanidation and use of lead nitrate and oxygen to alleviate their impact

An investigation was carried out on synthetic ores containing high purity pyrite, pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite and on two gold ores currently processed to evaluate the impact of cyanicides on cyanidation and to improve the leaching performance by using a pre-leaching, injecting oxygen and adding lead nitrate. With regard to the synthetic ores, it was found that pyrrhotite did not generate a high cyanide consumption while pyrite and chalcopyrite were detrimental. Pre-leaching was deleterious for the ore containing chalcopyrite while pre-leaching with lead nitrate was very efficient to decrease the reactivity of the ore containing pyrite. The two gold ores studied had very different compositions. The low sulphide ore had a low sulphide content (1.36% S), present as pyrrhotite while the second had a very high sulphide content (20.2% S), in the form of pyrite, pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite. The efficiency of the process conditions was peculiar to the ores. The high sulphide ore required a stronger, longer pre-leaching period (12 h) with greater amounts of lime (7.0 kg/t) and lead nitrate (600 g/t) than the low-sulphide ore. The ore with a low sulphide content required a pre-leaching of only 1 h with a small quantity of Pb(NO₃)₂ (50 g/t) and leaching can be performed at 360 ppm NaCN to allow a recovery of 96.4% Au and a low cyanide consumption at 0.18 kg/t. As for the high sulphide ore, cyanidation had to be conducted at 560 ppm NaCN to recover 88.4% Au with a cyanide consumption of 0.80 kg/t. An increase in the amount of lime enhanced oxidation of soluble sulphides. Lead nitrate stabilized copper and iron dissolution by forming a passivation layer at the surface of sulphide minerals. Lead nitrate also prevented the formation of a passive layer at the surface of gold.     

Comprehensive recovery of metals from cyanidation tailing

Cyanidation tailing is the residue produced in gold plants which use cyanidation to extract gold. It can be used as a secondary resource to recover residual metals that are of great economic value. The cyanidation tailing investigated in this paper was obtained from Shandong Province, China. It contained valuable metals such as chalcopyrite, galena, sphalerite and pyrite. In this study, alkaline sodium hypochlorite was used as a regulator in the pretreatment stage. It was proved that the sodium hypochlorite played two roles in the flotation pulp: oxidant and pH regulator. On one hand, sodium hypochlorite oxidized cyanide to cyanate, eliminating the negative effect of residual cyanide towards the environment. On the other hand, with the pH of flotation pulp exceeding 10, sphalerite and pyrite were depressed enormously, which was beneficial to the recovery of chalcopyrite and galena. With the Cu–Pb bulk flotation flowsheet, the cyanidation tailing was processed to obtain qualified Cu concentrate with grade of 13.17% and recovery of 70.00% compared with the original Cu grade of 0.21%. The Cu–Pb tailing was processed to obtain qualified Zn concentrate with grade of 34.72% and recovery of 69.58% compared with the original Zn grade of 0.33%, constituting the comprehensive recovery routing for the cyanidation tailing.