Development of the processing technology of a gold-containing sulfide concentrate

Smelting of a flotation gold-containing concentrate with the use of a copper collector and slag of the four-component system SiO₂-FeO-Na₂O-CaO is studied. Optimum parameters are determined for the preliminary roasting of the concentrate (t = 750–800°C, τ = 45–60 min) and its smelting (t = 1200–1250°C, τ = 50–60 min, time of metal-slag stratification is 45 min, concentrate-to-carbon ratio is 10: 1). It is shown that as the last parameter decreases (below 10: 1), reduction of hematite and magnetite to metal iron starts with the subsequent transfer of iron into copper. For a fourfold recycling of the copper collector, the extraction of gold was 99.5% and that of silver was 77.7%.