Recovery of copper and gold from Miduc copper smelting furnace dust: A study of acid leaching for copper removal and cyanidation for gold extraction
Subject Areas :
Keyhan Rajabi
1
,
Hamidreza Bagheri
2
*
,
Sattar Ghader
3
,
Esmaeel Darezereshki
4
1 - Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman
2 - Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman
3 - Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman
4 - Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman
Keywords: Copper, Leaching residue, Gold, Aqua Regia, Sodium cyanide, Gold recovery.,
Abstract :
.The dust produced from the smelting furnaces of the Miduk copper complex contains approximately 20% copper. This dust undergoes leaching with sulfuric acid, facilitating partial copper recovery. The leaching residue contains copper, lead, zinc, and gold at a concentration of 1.2 mg/l. Since copper increases cyanide consumption during the gold cyanidation process, this study initially focused on removing copper through acidic leaching with sulfuric acid in the presence of hydrogen peroxide as an oxidizing agent, aiming to optimize copper leaching conditions and prevent excessive cyanide usage during the subsequent gold leaching stage. To enhance copper dissolution, parameters such as sulfuric acid concentration, leaching temperature, solid percentage, and leaching time were systematically investigated. The optimal conditions for copper removal were found to be a sulfuric acid concentration of 200 g/l, 10 % solids, a temperature of 70 °C, and the addition of hydrogen peroxide as an oxidant, with a leaching duration of 3 hours. Under these conditions, copper recovery reached 93.87 %. The residue remaining after copper leaching was then subjected to gold extraction. For gold recovery via cyanide leaching, sodium cyanide concentration and leaching time were examined. The highest gold recovery of 21.69 % was achieved at 10 % solids, 25 °C, pH equal to 10.5, sodium cyanide concentration of 4000 mg/l, and a leaching time of 6 hours. Subsequently, an experiment was conducted using aqua regia at a 1:3 ratios to determine the extent of gold dissolution in this medium. The gold recovery in aqua regia reached 81.27 %.
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