A Study on the Removal of Penalty Elements and the Improvement of Gold Contents from Gold Concentrate Using Microwave-nitric Acid Leaching

Abstract

This study used microwave-nitric acid leaching with the aim of removing penalty elements such as As and Bi. Moreover, enhanced gold content from the gold concentrate sample. The leaching conditions were changed: leaching time, nitric acid concentrations and solid-liquid ratio; In order to improve the removal of penalty elements. As a result of the experiment; sample weight loss rate, As and Bi removal rate and gold content in the solid-residues have been increased when the nitric acid concentration and leaching time were increased while the solid-liquid ratio was decreased. The leaching conditions for the maximum As and Bi removal and gold content were: leaching with a 6.0 M nitric acid solution doing 5 min. At these, the solid-residue sample weight loss was 87 %. As removal rate was 98.23 % and Bi was completely removed (100 %). Furthermore, gold content increased from 81.36 g/t to 487.32 g/t. The XRD of the solid residue showed that pyrite disappeared as the nitric acid concentration was increased, whereas sulfur peaks was increased, too.