Chemistry, Vol 11, No 1 (2018)

Investigation and development of the technology of processing gold-antimony flotation concentrates

Rostislav E. Rusalev, Sergei V. Grokhovskii, Denis A. Rogozhnikov, Stanislav S. Naboichenko

Abstract


Hydrometallurgical investigations of gold antimony flotation concentrate have been carried out. XRD and chemical analyses of the concentrate have been studied. Mainly, the material consists of compounds of antimony, silicon, calcium, sulfur and iron. The main phases are quartz, stibnite, calcium carbonate and ankerite, pyrite and arsenopyrite have been found as well. The feature of antimonite’s dissolving in alkaline solutions has been reviewed. The dependences of effects of the temperature, time, L/S ratio and NaOH concentration on the extraction antimony and sulfur from the flotation concentrate have been determined. During sulphide-alkaline leaching of the starting material several physicochemical characteristics of gold dissolution has been identified.

Agitated cyanide gold leaching test of the disantimonied cake was conducted. Gold recovery was 32,2%. The obtained low indexes of gold recovery are based on cyanidation. A nitric acid leaching of disantimonied cake was proposed