It is an important step in the gold mining industry, and widely receiving attention and congratulations. Leaching of gold, silver and accompanying metals from. The processes can employ lixiviants that include at most only small amounts of copper andor ammonia and operate at a relatively low ph, reduction of polythionates, inert atmospheres to control polythionate production, and electrolytic solutions which provide relatively high rates of. Effect of pyrite on thiosulfate leaching of gold and the role. Therefore, by combining the expressions for the rate constants and the. The conventional cyanidation process in gold leaching has been used since 1887. The role of ligands and oxidants in thiosulfate leaching. Pdf thiosulfate leaching of gold from waste mobile. Apr 01, 2004 alkyl phosphorus esters, alkyl amines, amine oxides and their mixtures with amines hydrometallurgy 46 1997 363.
The results for leaching gold with alternative reagents, sodium thiosulfate and ammonium hydroxide, show that the best extraction was achieved at 0. Pdf leaching of gold from the waste mobile phone printed circuit. Processes are provided for recovering precious metals from refractory materials using thiosulfate lixiviants. Reagent consumption is one of the major factors affecting the feasibility of the process to the actual operation yen et al. Associated sulfide minerals in thiosulfate leaching of gold qspace. In the leaching test on the reference gold ore, about 93% of gold was extracted within 3. Add sodium metabisulphate to force the gold to become metallic gold again. The role of oxygen in thiosulphate leaching of gold request pdf. The cost and transport of cyanide, the poor recovery of gold from carbonaceous ores, the lack of selectivity of cyanide towards copper minerals and the cost of waste treatment are real factors which can make cyanide unattractive in some circumstances. Although not as aggressive a leaching agent as cyanide, thiosulphate offers several technological advantages including its lower toxicity and greater efficiency with gold deposits associated with pregrobbing ores. The mnieral content of the ore dso infiuenced the gold extraction capacity.
Two models were generated from the data for predicting gold extraction and low thiosulfate consumption within the experimental region. Method for thiosulfate leaching of precious metalcontaining. Study on the leaching of mercuric oxide with thiosulfate solutions. Electrochemical model for the leaching of gold using ammoniacal thiosulfate leach. The models predicted 90pct gold extraction and a consumption of 0. Effect of additives on thiosulfate leaching of a gold ore. Also, it was found that in thiosulfate solutions containing thiourea, the oxidation current of goldsilver alloys decreased and the oxidation current from pure gold after the standard potential for gold oxidation 150 mv is higher than the total oxidation current from goldsilver alloys. As result of this comparison, thiourea stands out as the most promising alternative gold leaching reagent to cya nide. The effects of some associated minerals on thiosulfate gold leaching were studied through. Ultimately, the processes of gold leaching from refractory ores and gold. Us8097227b2 us12683,967 us68396710a us8097227b2 us 8097227 b2 us8097227 b2 us 8097227b2 us 68396710 a us68396710 a us 68396710a us 8097227 b2 us8097227 b2 us 8097227b2 authority us united states prior art keywords precious metal thiosulfate calcium leach solution pregnant leach prior art date 20021115 legal status the legal status is an assumption and. The modes of gold loss in the calcium thiosulfate leaching system. Gold leaching in thiosulfate solutions and its environmental. A method for leaching or dissolving gold from ores or.
In this study, trioctylmethylammonium chloride tomac was used as an extractant to. Ammonium thiosulfate ecological alternative to replace sodium. Associated sulfide minerals in thiosulfate leaching of gold. The gold industry has been seeking alternative reagents for leaching gold from lowgrade ores for the past 25 years. Associated sulfide minerals in thiosulfate leaching of. High consumption of reagents and the lack of a cheap process for recovering gold have made thiosulfate leaching. Process for the recovery of gold and silver from used refractory bricks.
The role of oxygen in thiosulphate leaching of gold. Thiosulfate leaching of middlerefractory gold ore with. Processing innovation nets metallurgy award barrick gold. Leaching of sludge from the avr process with ammonium. The leaching behavior of hgo in thiosulfate solutions under different experimental conditions temperature, thiosulfate concentration. Your browser doesnt seem to have a pdf viewer, please download the pdf to. Despite the fact that the gold mining industry accounts for only % of total cyanide consumption there is growing public concern over the use of toxic cyanide for gold extraction. Anodic oxidation of thiosulfate ions in gold leaching. The effect of cuii ions addition on silver leaching from solid residue after pressure leaching was investigated at thiosulfate and ammonia concentrations of 0. Thiosulfatecopperammonia leaching of pure gold and pressure. The results showed that the advantage of the novel system is that the thiosulfate consumption is negligible though the potential of ferricyanide is much higher than that of traditional cupric. The effects of some associated minerals on thiosulfate gold leaching were studied through thermodynamic analysis and leaching experiments on composite ore samples containing various minerals and a reference silicate gold ore.
Leaching of gold from the waste mobile phone printed. This detrimental effect became more severe with increasing pyrite content. Sb, combining with agitating by a magnetic stirrer, ika eurostpcus25. Sulphide minerals were responsible for lower gold extraction and thiosulphate consumptioe the increase of oxlde minerais consumes more thiosulp hate. In artisanal gold mining, mercury is used to extract gold from ore, which always results in severe. Unlike cyanide, which is highly toxic, the chemicals used in the thiosulfate leaching process are benign. Ammonium thiosulfate ecological alternative to replace sodium cyanide in gold and silver dissolution in lowgrade ores, m. Oct 06, 2016 first time any company in the western world produces gold on a commercial scale using thiosulfate from left to right. Effect of additives on thiosulfate leaching of a gold ore s. Many researchers have identified that thiosulfate leaching is the most likely alternative to cyanidation due to nontoxicity, low cost and other benefits. However, gold cyanidation process has serious environmental risks if an accident occurs in the process because of the toxicity of cyanide. Nioshtic2 publications search 10011646 coppercatalyzed. The reduction voltammograms were obtained on a stationary gold electrode at ph 4.
Thiosulfate leaching can be considered a nontoxic process, the gold dissolution rates can be faster than conventional cyanidation and, due to the decreased interference of foreign cations, high gold recoveries can be obtained from the thiosulfate leaching of complex and carbonaceoustype ores. Effects of ammon, copperammon ions, ph and sulphite on anodic oxidation of thiosulfate ions have been examined in details. Even though thiosulphate leaching has a potential in gold leaching, there is one major problem remaining and that is a high consumption of thiosulphate during gold leaching. The effects of some associated minerals on thiosulfate gold leaching were. Roasting the sulphides increases the thiosdphate stability and gold extraction capacity. Gold extraction was found to be enhanced with solutions containing 1520. An electrochemical and sers study of the goldthiosulfate. Pdf thiosulphate leaching for gold hydrometallurgy.
In the leaching test on the reference gold ore, about 93% of gold was extracted. Jun 27, 2006 method for thiosulfate leaching of precious metalcontaining materials. The gold leaching process followed the pseudosecond order kinetic model at the low concentration range of the reactants such as 4060 mm thiosulfate, 57 mm copperii and 0. Treatment of a polysulphide ore by ammoniacal thiosulfate. Once an experiment finished, the pulp was filtered in a press filter. Thiosulfate leaching of gold ores has great potential to reduce the impact on the environment. Nov 21, 2014 ammonium thiosulfate ecological alternative to replace sodium cyanide in gold and silver dissolution in lowgrade ores, m. Filter the water again using a fine gold filter and dump the water into another bucket and not onto the ground or down the drain. As one of the typical inorganic mercuric compounds, mercuric oxide was chosen for research in this paper.
Within the tanks, the slurry interacts with thiosulfate and a fine, beadlike material called resin that collects the gold. Thiosulphate leaching is a process that removes gold from gold bearing ores without the use of cyanide. Thiosulfatecopperammonia leaching of pure gold and. The results for the same but the pretreated waste by milling have accelerated the process of thiosulfate leaching. Results show that the anodic oxidation of thiosulfate ions is an inreversible reaction whose. Also, it was found that in thiosulfate solutions containing thiourea, the oxidation current of gold silver alloys decreased and the oxidation current from pure gold after the standard potential for gold oxidation 150 mv is higher than the total oxidation current from gold silver alloys. During leaching ferric oxide, iron hydroxide and elemental sulfur will be in solids and copper in solution acting as oxidizer oxygen rejuvenating the cupric ion and gold will be left with the thiosulfate if this leach is working and if all conditions are maintained in solution, thiosulfate lixiviants.
Ammonium thiosulfate ecological alternative to replace. The proposed method of the gold recovery comprises leaching with a solution of a mixture of sodium and ammonium hydrosulfite and thiosulfate, by sorption of the thiosulfate gold complex on a highly basic anion exchanger and by isolation of the highly basic anion exchanger, the sorption being carried out 210 hours after the leaching. Effect of pyrite on thiosulfate leaching of gold and the. Study on the leaching of mercuric oxide with thiosulfate. Gold sodium thiosulfate is a fairly common sensitizer with elicitation of symptoms linked to gold in jewelry, occupational exposure to gold, dental restorations, gold plated intracoronary stents and previous rheumatoid arthritis treatment. Barrick thiosulfate leaching of double refractory ore. Feng university of science and technology, liaoning, anshan, china received august 15, 2017, revised november 15, 2017 the effect of additives on gold leaching was investigated. The present work deals with the recovery of gold using ammonium thiosulfate as a leaching agent from waste mobile pcbs containing 0. Feb 26, 2019 please use one of the following formats to cite this article in your essay, paper or report. Leaching by thiosulfate decreases interference from these foreign cations. The effect of pyrite and the role of ammonium alcohol polyvinyl phosphate aapp during gold leaching in ammoniacal thiosulfate solutions were investigated using pure gold foils.
The spent sample volume was measured for determining the amount of thiosulfate that was needed to add into the pulp. At full capacity,400 tons of ore can be processed daily, with leaching taking place simultaneously in two sets of seven tanks. The sodium metabisulphate lowers the ph of the solution, turning the gold liquid into gold powder. It is currently the main gold leaching process in the world. Thiosulfate leaching offers a number of benefits related to gold recovery yields and environmental concerns. There exist encapsulated materials and gold present in microscopic pyrites and arsenopyrites. The role of ligands and oxidants in thiosulfate leaching of gold. For this pro pose, the gold leaching reagents are described and discussed in terms of their environmental and economical points of view. It confirms the possibility of thiosulfate leaching application for silver extraction. Leaching of middlerefractory gold ore show that both of the consumption of thiosulfate and leaching rate was decreased compare to the traditional copperammonia thiosulfate system. Electrochemical study of the gold thiosulfate reduction.
The processes can employ heap leaching or lixiviants that include one or more blinding agents. Results show that the anodic oxidation of thiosulfate ions is an inreversible reaction whose oxidizing. Optimizing the thiosulfate leaching of gold from printed. In order to decrease the consumption of lixiviant, study on dissolution of pure gold and middlerefractory gold ore using a novel thiosulfate leaching system with ferricyanide as oxidant was carried out. Feng university of science and technology, liaoning, anshan, china received august 15, 2017, revised november 15, 2017 the effect of additives on gold leaching was investigated using ammonium thiosulfate or calcium thiosulfate. Us8597399b2 method for thiosulfate leaching of precious. Please use one of the following formats to cite this article in your essay, paper or report. Pretreatment enables to achieve for the ammonium thiosulphate leaching with ammonium 98 % gold and 93 % silver extraction after 48 hours of leaching fig.
In addition, thiosulfate can be cheaper than cyanide. Thiosulfate leaching can be considered a nontoxic process, the gold dissolution rates can be faster than conventional cyanidation and, due to the decreased interference of foreign cations, high. Leaching of gold and silver from printed circuit board of. As you may have heard barrick gold has recently published an article on their patented thiosulfate leaching process, entitled theres a first time for everything for the extraction of gold at their goldstrike mine in nevada, usa. The influence of thiosulfate, ammonia and copper sulfate concentrations on the leaching of gold from pcbs of waste mobile phones was investigated. The proposed method of the gold recovery comprises leaching with a solution of a mixture of sodium and ammonium hydrosulfite and thiosulfate, by sorption of the thiosulfategold complex on a highly basic anion exchanger and by isolation of the highly basic anion exchanger, the sorption being carried out 210 hours after the leaching. Chief metallurgists janet baron and averne flahartyescobar, director of strategic technology solutions yeonuk choi and senior director of strategic technology solutions peter kondos accept the metsoc innovation award on behalf of their team that developed the thiosulfate. Chlorination, aqua regia, bromine, thiocyanate, thiosulfate and thiourea leaching. Leaching of gold from the waste mobile phone printed circuit. Therefore, a method for leaching or dissolving gold from ores or precious. Gold sodium thiosulfate is a fairly common sensitizer with elicitation of symptoms linked to gold in jewelry, occupational exposure to gold, dental restorations, goldplated intracoronary stents and previous rheumatoid arthritis treatment. Leaching of gold, silver and accompanying metals from circuit.