Smelting sulphide gold ore

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Kingkofi256

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Dec 20, 2020
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Hey guys, i am gold mining in Uganda and the ore here contains iron, little copper and the gold is an electrum of alot of silver. I process the ore until i remain with the concentrates for smelting. I use straight borax but i have never extracted a button. Please help because here in uganda borax extraction of gold from ore is unknown. Thanks
 
From what I understand, 1stly isolation of gold is needed, e.g. by AR + dropping.
2ndly, The dropped gold is melted with a little borax, that takes with him oxides, leaving the gold
 
Much depends on the ore or how the gold was formed in the ore. gold from volcanic action is different from gold formed by fault zones and shifting of these faults under each other, more basically if the gold is free-milling and can be concentrated by gravity methods, or microscopic gold locked up in the mineral complex of sulfide arsenites and tellurides, which may need floatation or some other means to concentrate the values, or may need to be pre-processed roasted, or some process to break the gold from ores bond for preparing the ore concentrate for some leaching process, or smelting process to recover the gold, before refining the gold recovered.

Is the gold free-milling? If so look into gravity recovery methods.
if not leaching or smelting may need to be considered.

If the gold is not free milling, it may not be worth the time and trouble for the small miner to recover the gold economically, conducting proper assays, proper sampling, testing to determine if the ore can be mined profitably, how many ounces per tons of ore can be expected, and the composition of the minerals involved, proper assays will help on working out a plan or type of recovery process, gaining a better understanding of your ore, and how the gold may be locked up and what those compounds are.
All ore is not the same, different rock is made up of different composition the gold formed within can also be formed from different methods and be of different compositions of the ore, just as ores are different the gold itself can be different not all ore can gold be recovered by one process or the same way or using the same techniques, the type of ore, the type of gold locked up in the mineral structure will determine the type of recovery methods needed and even then further experimenting may be needed to find a recovery method that can successfully extract the values from that type of ore, not all leaches or methods will work for different mineral ores...
 
Thanks for this feedback. I have a similar problem mining in Zimbabwe. My gold is free milling but extremely fine. I have the gold concentrate from the shaker table but not sure best way forward. Should I just simply use AR and the add smb or just burn everything in furnace. What would be the best method and quickest
 
If you want to be successful in gold recovery from ores the best way is to do what the mining companies do, they have the experience and expertise.

What these companies do not do is to try smelting ore or concentrates containing high levels of ore, you will recover little or no gold from this method.

You have to separate the gold from the ore, this is usually done by using cyanide to dissolve the gold.

If you are good with a table then you should be able to get a concentrate which can be treated with aqua regia to dissolve the gold.

You only use aqua regia to treat concentrates if you cannot get cyanide, the costs are a lot higher.

It is difficult to get good table recoveries when the gold is very fine, it tends not to be liberated when the ore is milled and the tabling rate is very slow.

Usually when dealing with fine gold and gravity methods you get very discouraged when you assay the table tails, the recovery into the cons will be poor.

This is a classic situation where bulk cyaniding of the whole milled ore is the best way to go.

Deano
 
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