Establishing the process mineralogy of gold ores

摘要

This paper discusses the classification of gold ores and gold minerals, mineralogical factors affecting gold extractive metallurgy, and study procedures and techniques commonly employed in gold process mineralogy. A case study of a refractory gold ore is provided to show the need and importance of process mineralogy in gold extractive metallurgy. From the perspective of metallurgical processing, gold ores can be classified into free-milling and refractory ores. Typically, free-milling ores are defined as those where over 80 percent of gold can be recovered by conventional cyanide leaching, such as placers, quartz vein gold ores, oxidized ores, silver-rich ores, copper sulphide ores, and some iron sulphide and arsenic sulphide ores. Refractory ores are defined as those that give low gold recoveries or give acceptable gold recoveries only with the use of either significantly more reagents or more complex pre-treatment processes. They typically include iron sulphide ores, arsenic sulphide ores, antimony-, bismuth-, and telluride-bearing gold ores, and carbonaceous sulphide ores.