Advantages and disadvantages of various kinds of adsorbents used in industrial extraction of [Au(CN)2]– anions from cyanide solutions and pulps

Abstract

Comparative study of an industrially used activated carbon of WSC-207C-GR brand, strongly basic anion exchanger MINIX, and weakly basic anion exchanger Purogold S992 in recovery of [Au(CN)2]– ions from cyanide aqueous solutions and slurries was carried out. It was found that the strongly basic anion exchanger MINIX has the highest adsorption rate of the cyanide complex of gold(I), whereas the activated carbon and the weakly basic ion exchanger possess a substantially higher selectivity toward the complex of gold(I). Use of each of the three sorbents makes it possible to solve the problem of the cyanide leaching of gold from ores containing natural substances that exhibit adsorbent properties with respect to the dicyanoaurate(I) ion. The influence exerted by the amount of kerosene additive and volume fraction of a sorbent on the efficiency of gold recovery by the sorbent in cyanidation of ores in the “carbon-in-pulp” and “resin-in-pulp” modes.