• Resources Recycling
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.3-7
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• 2020

Recently, the gold leaching technologies draw much interest to recover gold from low grade ores. Current leaching processes mostly use cyanide as the leaching agent, due to its high leaching efficiencies and cost-effectiveness. However, use of cyanide is severely problematic, because of toxicity and thereby environmental risks, and requires strict regulations and environmental management. Especially, this issue becomes further apparent when cyanide should be applied for dump or heap leaching for low cost gold recovery along with recent trends. To resolve this issue, the alternative leaching processes using thiosulfate or halogen compounds, instead of cyanide, have been studied and developed but there have been lots of difficulties toward commercialization, and therefore further research should be conducted. The commercialization of dump or heap bioleaching technologies should be urgently required for effective direct biogenic gold recovery from low grade ores or tailings without use of cyanide.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.337-341
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• 2001

A new method to extract gold from pyrite roster cinder, which combines ultra-fine-grinding with resin-in-pulp, has been studied in this paper. Compared with traditional leaching technology, it can short leaching time, avoid complex filter process, lower sodium cyanide consumption and increase gold recovery by 35%. During leaching, aluminium oxide ball was used as stirred medium, hydrogen peroxide as leaching aid and sodium hexametaphosphate as grinding aid. With the high efficiency and chemistry effect of ultra-fine-grinding, the leaching process was developed and the gold leaching rate may reach 88%. With AM-2 Б resin as abosorber and sulfocarbamide (TU) as eluent, gold was recovered from cyanide pulp by resin-in-pulp. AM-2 Б resin has good adsorbability in cyanide solution(pH=10). It was easy to elude gold from the loaded resin with 0.1㏖/L cholhydric acid and 1㏖/L sulfocabamide. The effect of contact time, temperature and acidity etc. on the gold absorption had been examined with static methods. The results showed that the adsorption and desorption of gold could both reach over 98%. The effects of flow rate of solution on dynamic adsorption and elution of gold had been examined with dynamic methods. Breakthrough curve and elution curve had been drawn in this paper. A mild condition was determined through a number of experiments: leaching time 2 hours, liquid solid ratio 4:1, sodium cyanide 3kg/t, hydrogen peroxide 0.05%, sodium hexametaphosphate 0.05%; adsorption time 30 minutes, temperature 10-3$0^{\circ}C$, resin($m\ell$) solid(g) ratio 1:10, eluent resin ratio 10-20:1, velocity of eluent $1.5m\ell$/min. Under the mild condition, the gold recovery may reach 85%.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.3-17
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• 2012

Selective leaching processes for copper, gold, nickel, and cobalt have been investigated because there is an advantage of ammoniacal hydrometallurgy that metal such as copper could be selectively extracted restricting the dissolution of iron or calcium. In the present article, the studies for selective ammoniacal leaching of copper from motor scraps and waste printed circuit boards (PCBs), for ammoniacal leaching of gold to decrease the amount of cyanide used or to substitute cyanide by thiosulfate, and for ammoniacal leaching to recover nickel and cobalt from nickel oxide ore and intermidiate obtained from manganese nodule treatment process were summarized and further studies were proposed for domestic technology development for ammoniacal hydrometallurgy processes.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.115-124
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• 2014

In order to leach Au and Ag from gold-silver bearing sulfide concentrate, the sulfide concentrate was ground in a ball mill for a dry pre-treatment and a wet pre-treatment process. Mineralogical studies and thiourea leaching experiments were carried out with the pre-treated sulfide concentrate. The results of the pre-treatment with the concentrate samples showed the mean particle size and iso-electrical potential was smaller in the dry pre-treatment sample than in the concentrate sample, and the contents was lower in the wet pre-treatment sample than in the dry pre-treatment sample. In XRD analysis, amorphous properties were only shown in the wet pretreatment sample. The results of the concentrate sample leaching experiments showed that the best Au, Ag leaching parameters were when the addition of thiourea was at a 1.0 g concentration, ferric sulfate was 1.0 M, sulfuric acid was 2.0 M and the leaching temperature was at $60^{\circ}C$. The Au, Ag leaching rate was always much greater and faster with the wet pre-treatment samples than with the dry pre-treatment samples. Accordingly, it is expected that more Au, Ag can be leached in an eco-friendly methodology using wet pre-treatment. The pre-treatment could be improved with an optimized grinding additive reagent and through researching grinding time in future non-cyanide processes.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.42-48
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• 2001

The dissolution behavior of gold and silver from gold-silver alloys in aerated cyanide solutions has been investigated by an electrochemical means as well as a direct measurement of gold and silver ions reported in the bulk solution as a function of time using rotating disc electrodes. The variables studied included oxygen partial pressure, rotating speed of the disc, concentration of cyanide, temperature and composition of the allyos. The dissolution potential and the rate of dissolution were obtained in view of the anodic and cathodic current-potential relationships. The results were discussed in terms of the mixed potential theory. The results showed that the dissolution rate of gold and silver from the alloys was controlled partially by chemical reaction. but largely by transport of either oxygen or cyanide, depending on their relative concentration under the experimental conditions employed in this study.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.3-11
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• 2017

Solvent extraction is an important process to recover pure gold and silver from various leaching solutions. The present work reviews the aqueous chemistry and solvent extraction separation of gold (I, III) and silver (I) from several leaching systems such as cyanide, thiocyanate, thiosulfate, thiourea and chloride medium. The extraction and separation behavior of gold (I, III) and silver (I) by various single and mixtures was compared on the basis of extraction reaction and the selectivity from these mediums. The chloride medium is recommended for the separation of gold and silver by solvent extraction in terms of extraction and stripping efficiency.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.21-28
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• 2013

In order to optimize gold leaching from refractory sulfide concentrate, a HCl-NaClO-$FeCl_3$ solution with varying attributes was applied to the roasted concentrate from Uil mine. The gold from Uil mine occurs in the form of invisible gold that is difficult to leach. The results of the gold leaching experiments showed that the best gold leaching parameters were $550^{\circ}C$ of roasting temperature, 2.0 M of concentration, 1.0% of pulp density, and $70^{\circ}C$ of leaching temperature. It is confirmed that the HCl-NaClO-$FeCl_3$ solution was an environmentally friendly method to leach gold and silver from the refractory sulfide concentrate as an alternative lixiviant to cyanide.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.49-55
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• 2001

The strategy of recovering metals from scrap is in general much different from primary sources. One of the main differences between the treatment of scrap and that of primary sources lies with the fact that metals are frequently associated with other met-als to form alloys in scrap, while metals occur in primary sources as oxides or sulfides. In this paper, factors affecting the dis-solution behavior of metals from various alloy systems have been reviewed and discussed. Specific examples have been drawn from Au/Ag, Au/cu and Ag/cu systems. Results of the dissolution behavior of various metals from these alloys have been reviewed and compared to the dissolution behavior of single metal systems in various lixiviants such as acids, cyanide and ammonia. It has been observed that the presence of other metals in alloys would significantly affect the dissolution rate of the metal in question. The leaching behavior of metals from homogeneous alloys relies on the chemical interaction between atoms in the lattice of the alloys, while that from heterogeneous alloys is affected by galvanic interaction established in the solution The manner in which the dissolution of a certain metal is influenced by surrounding metals has been discussed in terms of pas-sive and noble nature of the metal in relation to the neighboring metals. The role of the standard electrochemical Potential of these metals on the selective dissolution for a given lixiviant has also been discussed.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.26 no.11
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• pp.1871-1880
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• 2016

Bio-oxidation is an effective technology for treatment of refractory gold concentrates. However, the unsatisfactory oxidation rate and long residence time, which cause a lower cyanide leaching rate and gold recovery, are key factors that restrict the application of traditional bio-oxidation technology. In this study, the oxidation rate of refractory gold concentrates and the adaption of microorganisms were analyzed to evaluate a newly developed two-step pretreatment process, which includes a high temperature chemical oxidation step and a subsequent bio-oxidation step. The oxidation rate and recovery rate of gold were improved significantly after the two-step process. The results showed that the highest oxidation rate of sulfide sulfur could reach to 99.01 % with an extreme thermophile microbial community when the pulp density was 5%. Accordingly, the recovery rate of gold was elevated to 92.51%. Meanwhile, the results revealed that moderate thermophiles performed better than acidophilic mesophiles and extreme thermophiles, whose oxidation rates declined drastically when the pulp density was increased to 10% and 15%. The oxidation rates of sulfide sulfur with moderate thermophiles were 93.94% and 65.73% when the pulp density was increased to 10% and 15%, respectively. All these results indicated that the two-step pretreatment increased the oxidation rate of refractory gold concentrates and is a potential technology to pretreat the refractory sample. Meanwhile, owing to the sensitivity of the microbial community under different pulp density levels, the optimization of microbial community in bio-oxidation is necessary in industry.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.315-332
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• 2010

All of the water and stone-dust samples with or without flocculant, in and around quarry mines, were analyzed for total concentrations of heavy metals, cyanide(CN), toxic organic compounds and organic phosphorus. Extraction experiments on stone-dust by EDTA and various pH solutions were also carried out, in order to evaluate the contaminant leaching from the long-term heaped stone-dust within quarry mines. The concentrations of $Cr^{6+}$, Hg, CN, TCE/PCE and total phosphorus in all samples (water and stone-dust) were under detection limits, confirming no environmental contamination from stone-dust in quarry mine areas. Lead and cadmium were not detected in all water samples. Copper and zinc were found in some water samples, and arsenic was detected in a few water samples. But they also showed levels much lower than the drinking water standard. Results of the extraction experiments by EDTA and pH solutions showed that Pb, Cr, Cd, Cu and Zn were leached out in less amounts or under detection limits. Arsenic was detected only at pH 3. From above results, we suggested that environmental contamination by quarry mine development is likely to be minor or negligible.