International Journal of Science, Engineering and TechnologyAuthors: Hyok Sin, Chang-Sok Kim, Ryong-Ju Cho, Gang-Hyok Kim
Abstract: Hydrothermal oxidation pretreatment of refractory gold ores is an effective pretreatment of refractory gold ores, which has been widely used in recent years due to high rate of desulfurization, low environmental pollution and high reaction rate. In this paper, we describe the thermodynamic studies of nitric acid oxidation and the factors affecting gold extraction when pyrite and arsenopyrite-based gold concentrates are pretreated by mechanical activation and nitric acid oxidation. The factors affecting gold extraction are nitric acid concentration, mechanical activation time, and liquid-solid ratio. As a result, the decomposition of pyrite and arsenopyrite in nitric acid medium was proceeded from nitric acid concentration above 1mol/L at room temperature, and at the present of the mechanical activation, the decomposition was proceeded from nitric acid concentration above 0.5mol/L. After pretreatment using mechanical activation and nitric acid oxidation, the cyanidation leaching rate for gold concentrate was over 87%.
DOI: http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17695421
