Leaching of Silver from Boorchi Ag-Pb Ore in Mongolia with Acidic Thiourea Solution

A hydrometalhirgical process to extract silver from the silver-lead ore in Boorchi, Mongolia by using thiourealeaching solution is studied in this work. Through the observation of optical and scanning electron microscopes, and energyspectral analysis, it is determined that 5 kinds of silver minerals exist in the ore, including argentite, Ag-tetrahedrite,Ag-Zn-Sb-tetrahedrite, freibergite and acanthite. The experimental results of direct thiourea leaching of the ore show that56%～60% of silver is leached. The main reason for the low leaching rate is due to silver minerals enveloped in galena andother minerals, even though the ore is ground to the particle size of 75 μm. When the ore is pretreated with ammoniumcarbonate solution under oxidation, the experimental results of thiourea leaching show that the leaching rate of silver increasesto near 75% with the pretreatment. Based on the leaching experiments, a principle hydrometallurgical technological route toextract silver from the Ag-Pb ore is proposed.