Extracting Gold from Copper Tailings

[pujak]

Hello to all.

We have some copper tailings in large quantity and as per the analysis there is roughly 29 grams per ton of Gold and some other metals such as Iridium, Platinum and Palladium.

Can anyone suggest what would be the best method of extracting the gold, iridium, platinum and palladium separately from the entire lot?

Thank you to all, in advance, for answering.

(i have attached the mineral analysis report done on the material.)

 

[4metals]

Welcome to the forum.

You have not been very specific other than showing the precious metal content of your ore. The answers will vary depending on what type of ore you have and the quantity. Also, it is important to specify how you sampled this material to provide a sample for the lab. A sample that is not representative of the entire lot is useless. Was the material crushed, if so to what mesh?

If you give more specific answers to these questions you stand a much better chance of being helped. There are many members here with experience handling these materials who can help if you provide the facts needed to give a proper answer. It would also be helpful to know what equipment you have available for processing because often, a process can be tailored to your equipment.

 

[g_axelsson]

You call it copper tailings, but the numbers doesn't match up. It doesn't look like what you would get in a copper mine, even after the copper is removed. What type of material is that?

Extreme numbers of iridium, zinc and lead. With the lead and zinc numbers it is 50% pure metal. Iridium would probably never be that high compared to palladium and platinum in a natural source.

What type of assay did you use? XRF, fire assay, some type of spectroscopy or analytical chemistry?

And if this is ore, what type of ore and what process was used to concentrate it and extract the copper?

Göran

 

[Lino1406]

If 1.The tailings do not consume acid 2.Metals are in nano-size (expected). AR is the answer

 

[Platdigger]

With these numbers it looks a smelting operation.

 

[pujak]

Thank you to all for answering. I have gone through the questions asked and here are the answers:

1) The quantity of the assay report i sent first is 74 Tons.

2) It was sampled using the atomic absorption spectroscopy.

3) I asked about the ore further and i was told it is from the smelting.

4) The source of the material is Chile.

Additional details :

I am enclosing a picture of the material for further reference.

In total I have received three different assay reports for three different tailings.

I am enclosing the second assay report I have received of the second batch. roughly 5 million tons of the material is available in the second batch. And as per the report 45 grams per ton is available.

I am trying to get more details on this. As soon as I get some new information, I will update it here.

I hope this helps, if any further details are required do let me know.


UPDATE : I got the 3rd batch's details as well. Enclosing that too.

 

[snoman701]

So you sent a truckload of ore to the smelter and this report shows that it averages 26 GMT Au?

OR

You have 74 tons, and you sent out samples to a lab to determine what the value of the 74 tons should be?

If this is the case, how did you decide what pieces of ore to send to the lab?

 

[g_axelsson]

If someone have 25% copper and 25% zinc in tailings after a smelting operation I would say they don't know how to run it properly.

I still doesn't think the numbers add up to something realistic. Is someone trying to sell you the tailings?
Have you done the sampling yourself? Have anyone else handled the samples between sampling and it arriving at the assayers office?

I still think it is strange to find 1578 g of iridium when there is only 71g of platinum. By the way, the third picture of the bag is the same numbers as the first assay so I can only see two assays.

5 MTon of good grade gold ore is also strange. Numbers like that is what I would expect in a ore body, not tailings from a smelter. Be very careful and ask yourself who is going to take your money, I smell a scam here.

Göran