Tech to enhance gold recovery for double refractory ore processing
GUIYANG CITY (miningweekly.com) – A new technology to improve gold recovery in the processing of double refractory ores, which often resulted in native carbon competing with activated carbon and limiting gold recovery (commonly called preg-robbing), was now available for commercial use, said biological oxidation (Biox) solutions provider Biomin process manager Craig van Buuren.
The process, called HiTeCC, was a conditioning stage introduced after conventional carbon-in-leach (CIL) processing to recover preg-robbed gold from native carbonaceous materials.
The process resulted from the collaboration between a Biox user and Biomin, and had reliably been shown to improve gold recovery, following the CIL process, by 5% to 10%. Biomin was working with the University of Pretoria to further the fundamental understanding of the HiTeCC process and allow it to be extensively modelled, Van Buuren added.
"In our tests on double refractory concentrates with a high native-carbon content, normal gold recoveries were severely impacted without the HiTeCC process," he explained.
The process involved conditioning slurry post-CIL using heat, carbon and caustic reagents to reverse the preg-robbing effect. Gold was stripped off the native carbon and recaptured onto activated carbon through a two-stage temperature swing. This “innovative” slurry heat exchanging process meant HiTeCC could be easily tied into conventional leach circuits.
Biomin noted that it had done significant work to improve the efficiency of the process for plants processing double refractory ores and would continue to develop the modelling to enable bespoke solutions for specific preg-robbing materials.
Comments
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation