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Pretreatment of refractory gold ore by curing with concentrated sulfuric acid

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Abstract

With the evolving landscape of gold mineral resource development and utilization, the easily treatable gold resources are continuously decreasing, while refractory gold minerals are becoming the most important resources in the field of gold extraction. In these original ores, most of the gold is encapsulated in the lattice of pyrite and arsenopyrite, resulting in difficulty of gold transfer into the solution during the leaching process. The most effective method to solve the problem of insufficient contact between gold particles and leaching reagent is oxidation pretreatment before leaching. Different from traditional high-temperature roasting, concentrated sulfuric acid was used as both an oxidant and leaching agent in a sulfide-encapsulated refractory gold ore to decompose the pyrite in the curing environment to expose the gold and improve the leaching efficiency. The experimental results showed that under the conditions of liquid solid ratio 3:1, curing temperature 240 °C and the reaction time 1.5 h, the weight loss rate and iron removal rate of the ore sample reached the highest value of 60.01% and 99.68%, respectively. The main phase of curing residue was Fe2(SO4)3, and silica was nearly the only phase after washing. At the same time, by combining the sodium thiosulfate system gold leaching method, the gold leaching rate increased from 3.67% to 81.30% before and after pretreatment with concentrated sulfuric acid.

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Funding

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NO. 52174354).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Metallurgical and Ecological Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, 100083, China

    Yisa Liu, Kang Li, Zichen Yin, Jiong Dong, Lili Xu & Ruixin Ma

  2. Beijing Key Laboratory of Special Melting and Preparation of High-End Metal Materials, Beijing, 100083, China

    Ruixin Ma

  3. Tianjin Research Institute of Water Transport Engineering, Ministry of Transport, Tianjin, 30000, China

    Shina Li

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  1. Yisa Liu
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Liu, Y., Li, K., Yin, Z. et al. Pretreatment of refractory gold ore by curing with concentrated sulfuric acid. Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration 41, 1079–1087 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42461-024-00930-6

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