• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.34-39
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• 2001

Following the trends around the world in the 1990's, Australia has been promoting recycling as a means to reduce wastes and at the same time improve the economics of metal processing. Of significance to the metal processing industry is the recycling of steel and aluminium, mostly from cans collected from households. The recycling of cyanide during gold processing has also been evaluated extensively, involving many R&D activities currently conducted in several laboratories and commercial plants in Australia. This paper presents an overview of the above issues, evaluating facts and data collected on metal recycling. The technologies currently developed and evaluated for cyanide recycling are also discussed.

• 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.11 no.2
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• pp.3-13
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• 2002

The characteristics of cyanide decomposition in aqueous phase by hydrogen peroxide have been explored in an effort to develop a process to recycle waste water. The self-decomposition of $H_2O$$_2$at pH 10 or below was minimal even in 90 min., with keeping about 90% of $H_2O$$_2$undissociated. On the contrary, at pH 12 only 9% of it remained during the same time. In the presence of copper catalyst at 5 g Cu/L, complete decomposition of $H_2$O$_2$was accomplished at pH 12 even in a shorter time of 40 min. The volatility of free cyanide was decisively dependent on the solution pH: the majority of free cyanide was volatilized at pH 8 or below, however, only 10% of it was volatilized at pH 10 or above. In non-catalytic cyanide decomposition, the free cyanide removal was incomplete in 300 min. even in an excessive addition of $H_2$$O_2$at a $H_2$$O_2$/CN molar ratio of 4, with leaving behind about 8% of free cyanide. On the other hand, in the presence of copper catalyst at a Cu/CN molar ratio of 0.2, the free cyanide was mostly decomposed in only 16 min. at a reducedH202/CN molar ratio of 2. Ihe efnciency of HBO2 in cyanide decomposition decreased with increasing addition of H2O2 since the seu-decomposition rate of $H_2$$O_2$increased. At the optimum $H_2$$O_2$/mo1ar ratio 0.2 of and Cu/CN molar ratio of 0.05, the free cyanide could be completely decomposed in 70 min., having a self-decomposition rate of 22 mM/min and a H$_2$$O_2$ efficiency of 57%.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.61-66
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• 2015

Cyanidation has been used worldwide to recover gold from primary ore or concentrate. The use of cyanide is however becoming an emerging issue because of the toxic residue and wastewater made from the process. The cyanide-containing wastewater should be treated properly, obeying the environmental standard and regulations. In the present article, the domestic and international uses, regulations, and treatment technologies of cyanide in gold mining were investigated as a feasibility study to develop a cyanide treatment process as well as the cyanidation process. A biological cyanide treatment process to develop a zeroemission gold recovery and wastewater treatment process was also briefly introduced.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.28-38
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• 2004

The characteristics of cyanide decomposition in aqueous phase by electric oxidization have been explored in an effort to develop a process to recycle waste water. Considering current efficiency and voltage, the free cyanide decomposition experiment by electric oxidization indicated that 5 V of voltage and copper catalytic Cu/CN mole ratio 0.05 was the most appropriate condition, where current efficiency was 26%, and decomposition speed was 5.6 mM/min. High voltage and excess copper addition increased decomposition speed a little bit but not current efficiency. The experiment of free cyanide density change proves that high density cyanide is preferred because speed and current efficiency increase with density. Also, the overall decomposition reaction could be represented by the first order with respcect to cyanide with the rate constant of $1.6∼7.3${\times}$10^{-3}$ $min^{-1}$ The mass transfer coefficient of electric oxidization of cyanide came out as $2.42${\times}$10^{-5}$ $min^{-1}$ Furthermore, the Damkohler number was calculated as 5.7 in case of 7 V and it was found that the mass transfer stage was the rate determining step.

• 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.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.88-94
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• 2017

The recovery of gold in cyclone type electrolytic cell was conducted from solution for stripping gold of PCB by cyanide. The electrolytic recovery behaviors of gold was investigated by reaction time and addition of electrolytic sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) and gold plating additive (KG-120). Because the electrolysis generated NaOCl reacted with the cyanide in the leachate by alkaline chlorination, more than 99% of the cyanide was removed at a $NaOCl(g)/CN^-(g)$ ratio of 1.0. When NaOCl was added during the recovery of the gold from cyanide leachate in the cyclone electrolytic cell, the recovery of gold was 98% at the ratio of $NaOCl(g)/CN^-(g)$ from 0.5 to 2.5 in 480 minutes and decreased rapidly over the ratio of 3.0. Gold was recovered more than 99% by adding 1.5 and 4.5%(v/v) of KG-120 with NaOCl in 480 minutes. In particular, when the concentration of KG-120 was 3.5 and 4.5%(v/v), more than 96% of gold was recovered within 240 minutes and the initial recovery rate was relatively faster. The optimum concentration of KG-120 is 3.5%(v/v) considering the economic feasibility and efficiency.

• 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.

• 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.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.300-303
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• 2010

Environmental issues on the waste emission and its treatment are of great interest in these days. In order to resolve the pollution problems, recycling the waste materials is generally recommended. Especially, emission of waste acids in designated sources is increasing every year. In this study, we focused on the effective recycling of the waste acids rather than treatments. Management systems of the waste acids are not systematically designed, and the quality of the waste regulation on the recycling product is unclear in domestic and foreign countries. We surveyed the present conditions on domestic waste emission and recycling of waste acids. For the final analysis of the recycling products, iron chloride, iron sulfate, copper cyanide, copper oxides, and cement copper are selected as candidates. We expect that this article would help establishing the systematic management system on treating the waste acid materials.