Sulfide treatment to inhibit mercury adsorption onto activated carbon in carbon-in-pulp gold recovery circuits

摘要

In this invention sulfide compounds are added to mercury and precious metal-containing carbonaceous ore slurries prior to the slurry being processed by a carbon-in-pulp system. The sulfide compound inhibits the mercury from being adsorbed onto the activated carbon by reacting with the mercury to form mercuric sulfide and by inhibiting the dissolution of mercury from the ore. The mercuric sulfide precipitate displays no activity toward the activated carbon. The sulfiding procedure is performed with a sufficient amount of sulfide-providing compound to provide at least about 30 times the stoichiometric amount of sulfide ions required to react with the mercury in the ore slurry.