Effect of Chloride Concentration on Gold Recovery in Pressure Oxidation Process Ida Fok & Amy Ng (speaker), HATCH October 24, 2007
Mar 31, 2015
Effect of Chloride Concentration on Gold Recovery in
Pressure Oxidation Process
Ida Fok & Amy Ng (speaker), HATCH
October 24, 2007
Agenda
• Background • Overview of Gold Recovery Process• Pressure Oxidation Process• Technical Problem• Hypothesis & Objective of Study• Findings from OLI• Conclusions
Background
• Ida Fok
– Senior Process Engineer
– Over 32 years of experience in process design, control and simulation in mining and petroleum refining
– Hatch global consultant for METSIM
• Amy Ng
– Process Engineer
– Over 3 years of experience in basic and detailed design of alumina, potash, and high-pressure nickel/cobalt and gold recovery plants
• HATCH
– Global engineering consulting company specializing in mining, metallurgical, energy and infrastructure industries
– Autoclave Technology Group, a multi-discipline design group specializing in the design of high-pressure metals recovery plants
Overview of Gold Recovery Process
Yes
Pressure Oxidation
Refractory?
No
Gold Ores
Cyanidation
Carbon Adsorption
Reduction
NaCN
Activated Carbon
Cyanidation
• Cyanide leaching
• Alkaline ore slurry is combined with sodium cyanide
• Cyanide forms a complex with gold which dissolves into solution:
4 Au + 8 NaCN + O2 + 2 H2O =
4 NaAu(CN)2 + 4 NaOH
Refractory?
No
Gold Ores
Cyanidation
Carbon Adsorption
Reduction
Carbon Adsorption
Refractory?
No
Gold Ores
Cyanidation
Carbon Adsorption
Reduction
• Gold-rich solution is mixed with activated carbon pellets
• ‘Loaded’ carbon is washed with hot cyanide solution to strip gold from pellets
Reduction
Refractory?
No
Gold Ores
Cyanidation
Carbon Adsorption
Reduction
• Gold stripped from carbon pellets is recovered by electrolysis
• Gold accumulates on steel wool cathodes, which are dissolved in HCl acid
• Gold is ready for smelting (extraction process)
Pressure Oxidation Process
• Oxidation of sulfides, such as pyrite (FeS2) and marcasite (FeS2) at high T and P in autoclaves
• Release of encapsulated gold grains
Yes
Pressure Oxidation
Refractory?
No
Gold Ores
Cyanidation
Carbon Adsorption
Reduction
• Pre-treatment of “refractory” gold ores for cyanidation to be effective
Autoclaves
Commercial-sized autoclave in a gold recovery plant
Autoclave in a copper demonstration plant
Technical Problem
• Testwork data shows that gold recovery is highly dependent on chloride concentration
• Study of dissolution of gold to gold chloride (AuCl4-) is required through:
– Literature review– OLI Corrosion Analyzer Version 2.0.52
Hypothesis
• Dissolution of gold (Auo oxidized to +3 state to form AuCl4- in the presence of chloride ions) in acidic pressure oxidation is dependent on chloride concentration.
Objective
• To verify the hypothesis using Au-Cl-H2O stability diagrams generated by OLI Corrosion Analyzer Version 2.0
Au-Cl-H2O Stability Diagram from OLI
Au-Cl-H2O Stability Diagram from OLI
Au Recovery (Cl = 50 ppm, Acid = 10 g/l, Ratio of Fe+2/Fe+3 = 1
Data from OLI
Effect of Chloride Concentration and Temperature
760
780
800
820
840
860
880
900
920
940
0 50 100 150 200 250
Temperature (oC)
E (
mV
vs
Ag
/Ag
Cl)
Cl = 25 ppm
Cl = 100 ppm
Cl = 150 ppm
Findings
• The higher the Cl concentration, the lower the reduction potential (E) of AuCl4-/Au
• Oxidation of Auo is more favourable due to common ion effect, according to this reaction:
AuCl4- + 3 e- Auo + 4 Cl-
• Study extended to effect of temperature, ferrous/ferric ratio and H2SO4 concentration
Conclusions
• Reduction potential (E) of AuCl4-/Au decreases, i.e. dissolution tendency increases, with increasing temperature and chloride concentration
• OLI Corrosion Analyzer proves to be a useful tool in solving this technical problem
• Findings based on OLI stability diagram are consistent with those from literature
Questions or Comments?