GOLD RECOVERY FROM COPPER-RICH ORES EMPLOYING THE PUROLITE S992 GOLD-SELECTIVE ION EXCHANGE RESIN

摘要

There has been renewed global interest in the exploitation of historically marginal gold ore bodies, as a result of the recent steep rise in the gold price. The majority of these ores are complex and many of them contain significant amounts of copper minerals. The presence of copper causes a number of problems, including lower gold recoveries, increased cyanide consumption and increased toxicity of the effluent. A variety of processes have been proposed to recover the copper and/or cyanide, amongst others the SART (Sulphidisation, Acidification, Recycling and Thickening) process. Any process that is performed on the pregnant leach liquor prior to gold recovery could cause gold loss, especially if a high removal efficiency of copper cyanide is required prior to gold recovery. This paper discusses the use of a commercially available ion exchange resin with an exceptionally high selectivity for gold over copper. This would allow the effective recovery of gold from cyanide leach liquors that contain a relatively high copper concentration, thereby decreasing the risk of gold loss and potentially minimise the adsorbent inventory and flowrate.