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A fundamental study of the alkaline sulfide
leaching of gold Due
to the increasing concerns over the emission of sulfur dioxide from roasting and smelting,
there has been an increased interest in pressure oxidation as a means of treating gold
bearing ores and concentrates. One of the problems with the partial oxidation of the
sulfide host matrix to form elemental sulfur is that sulfur containing streams are
difficult to treat using cyanidation. In the present paper, the alkaline sulfide system
was studied as an alternative to cyanide for recovering gold from elemental sulfur. It was
found that the dominant lixiviant for gold in this system is sulfide, and polysulfide was
ascertained to be the oxidant. The leaching reaction was determined to be chemically
controlled, thus highly dependent on temperature. Other variables investigated include the
effect of pH, gold purity, and the ratio of sulfide to polysulfides. It was found that
each of these variables had a large impact on the system. |
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