Process for recovery of gold from refractory gold ores using sulfurous acid as the leaching agent

摘要

A process for recovering gold from refractory gold-bearing ores uses sulfurous acid as the leaching agent to form a gold-sulfite complex. The ore is ground, slurried blended with a chelating agent and then subjected to a simultaneous dissolved SO.sub.2 leaching and anion exchange resin adsorption step in the presence of dissolved oxygen. The gold transfers to the resin which is later separated from the resin by chemical stripping.