Analisis de oro y plata de concentrados gravimétricos auríferos mediante ensayo al fuego utilizando cobre como colector

摘要

The fire assay is the most widely used method for the determination of gold and silver from mineral ores and concentrates, for its simplicity and reliability of results. The traditional method involves mixing the sample of mineral concentrate with a fluxing agent mixture to form 2 phases; a metallic phase containing precious metals and the collector metal, and a slag phase, containing mainly oxides and silicates of other metals present in the sample being analyzed. As a collector of precious metals has been used lead, due to its low melting point, its malleability, and ease with which this can be oxidized to separate the precious metals. Lead is a highly polluting agent, so its replacement by other collector agents of precious metals is of great interest in the field of metallurgical analysis.