gold extraction from fine carbon

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Just another maybe stupid idea (but that's the way a brainstorming works, so why not writing it at the blackboard):

Maybe you could blend the carbon with a harmless burnable binder and form some kind of briqettes, so the oxigen better can reach into the material.
 
solar_plasma said:
Just another maybe stupid idea
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I hear nothing "stupid" about this idea, I was thinking along the same lines.
Wouldn't adding a touch of powdered Potassium Nitrate , increase oxygen in the mix to help combustion like it does with gun powder ???
Or even using a touch with an Oxidizing flame ???

Please forgive the train of thought, it's past my bed time.
 
santiago said:
OK,
the carbon should be red-hot when when the nitrate is added. After adding the nitrate it should burn off immediately within minutes.
Click to expand...
I'll try it in my furnace tomorrow.
 
My last idea would be to build a turbulence chamber furnace. Then catch the gold by a electrostatic particle filter from the cooled down exhaust. Though I am no technician and have no clue how much effort this would take. If you have a regular flow of more material, you could even use the energy to vaporize water and drive some turbines or a steam machine gaining electricity for your plant. Combined heat and power units can be obtained modularly. Small machines are usually fired with gas or wood pellets in europe, the big energy providers often use coalpowder.
 
As a pre-teen chemist, I would play with black powder. I made small cherry-bomb like explosives with xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx if not confined, it only burned very rapidly. When confined, it exploded. You might try it on a small sample. :lol:
 
DANCER said:
As a pre-teen chemist, I would play with black powder. I made small cherry-bomb like explosives with xxxxxxxxxxxxx. If not confined, it only burned very rapidly. When confined, it exploded. You might try it on a small sample. :lol:
Click to expand...

I don't think this is the proper place, nor proper forum to talk about explosives and how to make them. You might want to be careful what you suggest people try. And you might want to think twice about doing what you suggest yourself.

Scott

I agree, and have removed some of the content. We do not promote such activity on this board.

Harold
 
In Hoke's Book she speaks of recovering gold from high carbon material using litharge, the oxygen in the PbO combines with carbon forming CO2, and the lead collects the gold.
 
dear FPZA I do know how to help you...my company is called Sotagold...visit our website and contact me at my privet email so I know you are real it is [email protected]
we are new in US and we have developed a technology to do exactly what you are asking
 
We specialize in extracting Au from Fine Carbon of any size.
In fact the finer the better ...we use a unique ground breaking technology and able to extract 94-98% of Au from Fine Carbon at very low costs .
Our company is called Sotagold...please visit our website Sotagold.com and for more info email me at KLKNY @hotmail.com
Thnaks
 
This is not a new problem, most mines struggle with carbon fines (and extracting Gold from it) that utilise carbon leaching. There is various ways to try and recover the gold, as mentioned above, but you can also try using a fluidized bed hearth. Its a speciality system, and not a home made plant, here is a company that does it: www.macrotec.co.za/gold-recovery

The system recovers about 95% of the Gold from the fine carbon particles at 60kg carbon per hour.
 
Hi,

We have a similar issue with fine carbon in our plant. Not sure how you recover the gold in your CIL circuit but we collect all the fine carbon and when we have enough we run it through the elution column to recover the gold and then dispose of the carbon.

Another way you could try to recover the gold and silver is but ashing and then smelting the carbon. I have done this in small batches before. Load up a calcine oven and ash the carbon and then flux and smelt the ashed product.

Good luck, it is not easy.

Chris
 
A half burned mixture of ash and carbon is harder to burn than just straight carbon. The ash will automatically limit the oxygen to the carbon by covering it. However full ashing is the first thing you must accomplish. Any carbon present will re-extract the gold if you try to dissolve it in a leach, and any carbon will float on the surface if you try to flux smelt it.
A rotary kiln is a good idea.
We used to have a business that processed spent carbon from mines. They had a multi stage burner that rotated and stirred the carbon until it was fully 100% ashed.
Wetting the ash would be a bad idea unless you are going to do some sort of cyanide leach or something like that. It will take a lot of effort to re-dry it if a dry product is what you want to use.

The gold will be very tiny, so trying to extract with things like metallic mercury would be a waste of time. The business I am familiar with did what was basically a gigantic fire assay on the ash, fluxing it with lead oxide and lead, much like a fire assay, but in the form of a giant 500 pound version. They also had huge cupellation tubs to part the precious metals from the lead. Another option is that you could also do a cyanide leach to re-dissolve it, filter and then use a merril crowe process or electro-winning if you have the equipment and facility to do that - you have a fairly high silver to gold ratio.
 
when we have enough we run it through the elution column to recover the gold and then dispose of the carbon.
Click to expand...

You know the elution process takes out the majority of the gold out but still leaves a significant amount in the carbon, right? the more times you load the carbon and then strip it, the more gold will be left behind on the carbon each time. The numbers he was mentioning at the beginning of the thread, 30 ppm gold, are consistent with carbon that has already been eluted, but no more gold will come off. Your disposed carbon probably has a similar amount of gold adhering to it.
 
tassie73 said:
Hi,

We have a similar issue with fine carbon in our plant. Not sure how you recover the gold in your CIL circuit but we collect all the fine carbon and when we have enough we run it through the elution column to recover the gold and then dispose of the carbon.

Another way you could try to recover the gold and silver is but ashing and then smelting the carbon. I have done this in small batches before. Load up a calcine oven and ash the carbon and then flux and smelt the ashed product.

Good luck, it is not easy.

Chris
Click to expand...
dear Tassie our company Sotagold specializes in extracting gold from VERY fine carbon and I believe we can help we are in US...email me at [email protected] if you interested
thanks
 
That's similar to performing electrowing (desorption process of activated carbon), but with more voltage would also be a bit expensive, will depend on how much content metal has coal, for that would have to be heated to over 90 ° C, which desorption is when it starts and then pass by electrowinning (energy consumption, amperage ratings above 1,000), plus the fine coal could swim on the solution and not desorbed well. I say from my experience, since I work long ago in Plants ADR (adsorption-desorption-reactivation of activated carbon), and have that problem of generation of fine coal, and I'm looking for a process that is me profitable to recover the gold is within the coal, although much of the fine coal recovery in the DSM and filter presses.
 
It would be good idea pelletizing fine coal with a binder and sodium or potassium nitrate, then take them to the retort furnace, and then cast in a conventional oven.
 
tassie73 said:
Hi,

We have a similar issue with fine carbon in our plant. Not sure how you recover the gold in your CIL circuit but we collect all the fine carbon and when we have enough we run it through the elution column to recover the gold and then dispose of the carbon.

Another way you could try to recover the gold and silver is but ashing and then smelting the carbon. I have done this in small batches before. Load up a calcine oven and ash the carbon and then flux and smelt the ashed product.

Good luck, it is not easy.

Chris
Click to expand...

but which system do you use to collect those fine carbons from your CIL tank
 

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