Abstract

RODRIGUEZ-RODRIGUEZ, Carolina et al. Cyanide consumption of a gold-bearing pyrite concentrate, using ozone as a pre-treatment. Epistemus (Sonora) [online]. 2021, vol.15, n.31, pp.38-43.  Epub May 26, 2023. ISSN 2007-8196.  https://doi.org/10.36790/epistemus.v15i31.194.

Pyrite (FeS2), is the second most common host mineral for gold species. This association presents a great complexity, due to the gold can be finely disseminated or included at very fine size (0.1 to 1.0 µm), which requires extreme crushing conditions and strong oxidation in order to, liberate the gold, in a subsequent cyanidation step. In this work, cyanide consumption was evaluated, when a gold-bearing pyrite concentrate is submitted to a pretreatment with ozone prior to the conventional cyanidation. Tests were carried out at two different cyanide concentrations (1000 and 3000 ppm of CN)-, for a gold pyrite concentrate (67.44% of FeS2), where a significant decrease in cyanide consumption of 54% and 69% was found, when the mineral is submitted to an ozone treatment before cyanidation. These findings suggest that the use of ozone increases silver recovery and generates significant environmental impact.

Keywords : Gold-bearing pyrite; refractory ores; cyanidation; ozone.

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