Hydrometallurgy 82 (2006) 118 125

www.elsevier.com/locate/hydromet

The effect of sulfide minerals on the leaching of gold

in aerated cyanide solutions
X. Dai 1 , M.I. Jeffrey ,1
Department of Chemical Engineering, Monash University, Clayton Vic 3800, Australia
Available online 8 June 2006

Abstract

The effect of galvanic interactions and sulfide mineral dissolution on the gold leaching kinetics in aerated cyanide solutions is
investigated. Gold leaching kinetics were measured using a rotating electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance (REQCM), which
measures the leaching rates in-situ. When the mineral is electrically in contact with gold, the gold dissolution rate increases as a
result of the extra surface area available for oxygen reduction. However the leaching behavior of gold in the presence of soluble
sulfide minerals is complicated. It is shown that the formation of sulfide ions in solution results in the passivation of the dissolution
of gold. The addition of lead was found to be an effective means of alleviating this problem, as lead promotes the removal of
sulfide by precipitation as PbS.
2006 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Keywords: Gold leaching; Kinetics; Cyanidation; Mineral sulfides; Electrochemistry; Passivation; Lead; Galena; Chalcocite

1. Introduction dissolution in the presence of various sulfide minerals in

Since a large proportion of gold ores contain sulfide
minerals, the effects of these minerals on gold dissolu-
tion in cyanide solution have interested many research-
ers. Early studies on the dissolution of gold in cyanide
solution in the presence of sulfide minerals have shown
that heavy metal components, such as Cu, Fe and Zn,
significantly increase the consumption of both cyanide
and oxygen (Habashi, 1967). In addition, the sulfide
component has been shown to have a strong impact on
the gold leaching kinetics (Fink and Putnam, 1950;
Hedley and Tabachnick, 1968). Liu and Yen (1995)
conducted a systematic study of the kinetics of gold
Corresponding author. Tel.: +61 8 9334 8081; fax: +61 8 9334
8001.
E-mail address: matthew.jeffrey@csiro.au (M.I. Jeffrey).
1
Now at CSIRO Minerals, Bentley, WA, Australia.
0304-386X/$ - see front matter 2006 Published by Elsevier B.V.
doi:10.1016/j.hydromet.2006.03.005
both air-saturated and oxygen-enriched systems. Their
results demonstrated that the leaching behavior of gold in
the presence of sulfide minerals depended strongly on
both the solubility of the sulfides and the oxygen con-
centration in the solution. For instance, in an oxygen-
enriched cyanide solution, the presence of chalcopyrite,
pyrrhotite, arsenopyrite and pyrite were found to
increase the gold dissolution rate, while others, such as
stibnite and chalcocite, caused a reduction in the gold
dissolution rate. Deschenes et al. (2000, 1998),
Deschenes and Wallingford (1995) tried to improve the
leaching performance of gold in the presence of some
sulfide minerals by using pre-leaching, injecting oxygen
and adding lead nitrate. It was reported that pre-leaching
successfully overcame the effect of pyrite and pyrrhotite
on cyanide consumption and the gold leaching kinetics,
but it had no beneficial effect when chalcopyrite was
present. It was suggested that lead nitrate prevented
 X. Dai, M.I. Jeffrey / Hydrometallurgy 82 (2006) 118125
copper and iron dissolution by forming a passive layer at
the surface of sulfide minerals.
Since the sulfide minerals are to some extent soluble
in cyanide solutions, there will always be some sulfur
species present in the leaching solution. It is generally
believed that the presence of such species results in high
consumption of cyanide and oxygen. However, some
results of kinetic studies suggest that sulfur species also
directly affect the gold leaching reaction. Weichselbaum
et al. (1989) found that the addition of trace amounts of
sodium sulfide to the cyanide solution dramatically
hindered gold leaching and ascribed it to the formation
of a passive layer of Au2S on the gold surface. Similar
results were obtained by Lorenzen and van Deventer
(1992), who studied the kinetics of gold leaching in the
presence of reactive sulfide minerals such as pyrrhotite.
Jeffrey and Breuer (2000) used gold containing 5%
silver rather than high purity gold to investigate the
effect of sulfur species and suggested that soluble
sulfide hinders the rate of gold leaching by forming a
protective layer of the type Au/Sx. They showed that this
was a monolayer of sulfur which forms at potentials
negative of the bulk sulfur deposition potential. The
formation of a monolayer of sulfur on gold in alkaline
non-cyanide solutions has also been noted by others
(Briceno and Chandler, 1990; Hamilton and Woods,
1983). It was also shown that the sulfur formed is
chemically attacked by cyanide, resulting in higher
leach rates at higher cyanide concentrations (Jeffrey and
Breuer, 2000).
Another interesting aspect of the gold leaching
behavior is the galvanic interaction between gold and
the mineral, as naturally occurring gold is likely to be in
contact or in association with various minerals.
Lorenzen and van Deventer (1992) tried to differentiate
the effect of galvanic interaction from the formation of a
passivating film on the gold surface by using pure gold
rotating disc electrically contacted with mineral disc in
one vessel and then in two separate vessels. They
suggested that when gold is in contact with conducting
minerals, it will passivate as a result of the enhanced
magnitude of the cathodic current. It was argued that the
higher cathodic current causes a positive shift in the
mixed potential into the passive region, resulting in
decreased gold dissolution rates.
One complication with most previous studies is that
high purity gold was utilized, for which the leaching is
hindered by a film of AuCN (Jeffrey and Ritchie, 2001).
However most naturally occurring gold contains silver,
for which the cyanide leaching reaction occurs at a high
rate (Jeffrey and Ritchie, 2000b). The present study aims
to establish the effects of sulfide minerals such as
119
chalcocite on the leaching of gold containing 5% silver
using a rotating electrochemical quartz crystal microbal-
ance (REQCM) to directly measure the gold leaching rate
and the corresponding mixed potential when it is electri-
cally connected to various mineral sulfide electrodes.
2. Experimental methods
These experiments were carried out using solutions
prepared from analytical grade reagents and Millipore
water. For the experiments without the employment of
pre-leaching, cyanide was initially added into the bulk
solutions containing sulfide minerals. At different time
intervals, sample solutions were taken and filtered, and
the filtrate was used to measure gold leach rates using the
REQCM, which is described elsewhere (Jeffrey et al.,
2000). The concentration of dissolved metal from the
sulfides was measured using a Varian SpectrAA-400
Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (AAS). For experi-
ments with pre-leaching, a similar procedure was adopted
but cyanide was added after a pre-leaching period of 4 h.
The leaching and electrochemical experiments were
performed at a rotation rate of 300 rpm and at a
temperature of 20 C. All potentials were measured
relative to the saturated calomel electrode (+ 0.242 V vs.
SHE), but are reported relative to the SHE. Prior to each
experiment, gold was electroplated onto the quartz
electrode at 25 A m 2 from a solution containing
0.02 mol L 1 potassium dicyanoaurate, 0.23 mol L 1
potassium cyanide, 0.086 mol L 1 potassium carbonate,
and 0.5 mmol L 1 silver nitrate. This resulted in a de-
posit containing approximately 5% silver by mass
(which for simplicity will be referred to as gold), thus
ensuring that the experiments more closely mimicked
industrial conditions. The linear sweep voltammetry was
carried out using a PAR273 potentiostat, and a scan rate
of 1 mV s 1 was adopted. A platinum wire was used as
the counter electrode.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Electrochemistry of gold and sulfide minerals in
cyanide solutions
The oxidation of gold and some sulfide minerals in
solutions containing 5 mmol L 1 cyanide and 50 mmol
L 1 sodium perchlorate as background electrolyte was
studied using linear sweep voltammetry, and the
polarization curves are shown in Fig. 1. It can be seen
that gold oxidation commences at 620 mV and
approaches a diffusion limited current of 15 A m 2 at
0 mV. The oxidation of various sulfide minerals was also
120 X. Dai, M.I. Jeffrey / Hydrometallurgy 82 (2006) 118125
20
gold
chalcocite
covellite
15 galena
pyrite
marcasite
i / A m-2
pyrrhotite
chalcopyrite
10
Au
5
chalcocite
0 350 to 60 mV, before slowly decreasing to 200 mV.
-600 -400 -200 0 200
E / mV
Fig. 1. Gold and mineral oxidation polarization curves in 5 mmol/L
cyanide and 50 mmol/L sodium perchlorate.
studied, and the polarization curves in Fig. 1 show that
little current is observed until the potential exceeds
200 mV for pyrrhotite, covellite, pyrite, marcasite, galena
and chalcopyrite. The oxidation of chalcocite occurs
most readily among the sulfide minerals studied, with the
reaction commencing at 150 mV. However, it is still
much more noble than gold in cyanide solutions. These
results demonstrate that gold cannot be cathodically
protected by these minerals when in electrical contact.
In a similar manner, the polarization curves for the
reduction of oxygen in the absence of cyanide on the
mineral surface were obtained (Fig. 2). It is clear that
oxygen reduction occurs on all the minerals, with
chalcocite having the most active surface for reduction,
and galena the least active surface. Since the oxidation of
gold can occur at potentials more positive than 600 mV,
it is clear from Fig. 2 that there is the opportunity for
galvanic interaction between the gold and sulfide mine-
rals. It can be expected that particularly for chalcocite,
oxygen reduction on the mineral surface in contact with
gold will give rise to higher dissolution rates.
3.2. Effect of galvanic interactions on gold leaching
In order to study the galvanic interactions between
sulfide minerals and gold in more detail, two electrodes,
one gold electrode and one mineral electrode, were
simultaneously leached in 5 mmol L 1 cyanide solution.
The REQCM was used to measure the gold leaching rate
and the corresponding mixed potential when it was
electrically connected to a chalcocite electrode. The two
electrodes were not connected together electrically until
leaching had proceeded for 5 min. As shown in Fig. 3, it
is clear that the mass of gold decreases at a steady rate
prior to the electrical connection of the mineral. From the
slope of mass vs. time, the gold leaching rate is calcula-
ted to be 5.6 10 5 mol m 2 s 1 under these conditions.
This leaching rate is typical for the dissolution of gold in
air saturated solutions when the rate is oxygen diffusion
controlled (Jeffrey and Ritchie, 2000b), and hence it
represents the maximum rate at which gold can be
leached in air saturated cyanide solutions.
After the gold and chalcocite electrodes were
electrically connected together, the gold leaching rate
increased, reaching a value of 13 10 5 mol m 2 s 1. At
the same time the mixed potential increased rapidly from
400 As shown in Fig. 2, this is in the potential region where
oxygen reduction can occur on the mineral surface.
Therefore, it is believed that the connected mineral
electrode provides extra surface area for oxygen reduc-
tion to occur, and hence the increase in the total cathodic
current causes a positive shift in the mixed potential and
an increase in the gold leaching rate. A similar effect was
observed for the other sulfide minerals, even galena, for
which oxygen reduction is more difficult. However the
increase in leaching rate when galena was connected was
less significant than for chalcocite.
It is worth noting that these results are inconsistent
with those of Lorenzen and van Deventer (1992), as they
stated that the enhanced cathodic current shifts the mixed
potential to the passivation region for gold, and hence
hinders the dissolution process. It is most likely that this
difference can be ascribed to the fact that Lorenzen and
van Deventer (1992) used a pure gold electrode, for
which the leaching is hindered (Jeffrey and Ritchie,
2001). As shown in Fig. 1, the gold/silver alloy does not
experience passivation, and hence an increase in the
mixed potential gives rise to higher leaching rates.
The second mechanism by which sulfide minerals can
impact on the gold leaching process is as a result of their
0
-2
-4
i / A m-2
Chalcocite
Galena
-6 Pyrite
Marcasite
Pyrrhotite
-8 Chalcopyrite
-10
-600 -400 -200 0
E / mV
Fig. 2. Oxygen reduction polarization curves on various sulfide
minerals in 5 mmol/L cyanide and 50 mmol/L sodium perchlorate.
 X. Dai, M.I. Jeffrey / Hydrometallurgy 82 (2006) 118125
0 0
-50
m /g
-100
-150
-200
0 200 400 600
t/s
Fig. 3. Effect of the galvanic interaction between gold and chalcocite
on the leaching of gold and on the mixed potential in 5 mmol/L
cyanide.
solubility. The experiments shown in Fig. 3 were only
run for a short period of time, and hence the non-
oxidative dissolution of the sulfide minerals was limited.
Since most sulfide minerals are to some extent soluble in
cyanide solution, it has been suggested that the dissolved
species may affect the gold leaching reaction. The
remainder of the present study will address this issue.
3.3. Effect of galena (PbS) on gold leaching kinetics
The REQCM was used to study the leaching of gold
in air saturated 10 mmol L 1 cyanide solutions in the
presence of galena (PbS). At various time intervals a
sample of solution was filtered and the gold leaching rate
was determined by measuring the mass as a function of
time using the REQCM. The steady state leach rate was
then calculated and found to remain constant above
6 10 5 mol m 2 s 1 for three hours.
It is worth noting that the concentration of lead
measured in the solution for the experiments was less
than 5 ppm. However with time, the colour of the solids
changed from black to a milky white. Such a result
suggests that in cyanide solutions, the galena is converted
to lead hydroxide via the oxidation of the sulfide.
Previous studies have shown that lead catalyses the
oxidation of soluble sulfide to thiocyanate through the
precipitation of lead sulfide (Hedley and Tabachnick,
1968; Jeffrey and Breuer, 2000). Thus it is believed that
galena is oxidized to thiocyanate, producing lead ions
which precipitate to form the milky white lead hydroxide.
3.4. Effect of pyrite (FeS2), pyrrhotite (Fe1xS) and
marcasite (FeS2) on gold leaching rates
Using the same method as described above for gale-
na, gold leaching experiments were performed to study
the effect of pyrite, pyrrhotite and marcasite. Fig. 4
121
shows the gold dissolution rates as well as the iron
concentrations as a function of contact time of the
-100
solution with 1 g/L of mineral. It can be seen that the
solubility of these three minerals in cyanide solution is
E / mV
-200
very low with less than 2 mg/L iron detected after three
hours of leaching. Surprisingly, pyrite appeared to be
-300
more reactive than the other two iron mineral samples.
The gold leaching rate was also measured as a function
-400
of time, but due to the low solubility of the minerals, the
gold dissolution rate is barely affected by the presence
of these minerals (Fig. 4). A leaching rate of ca.
5.5 10 5 mol m 2 s 1 was observed for pyrrhotite and
macarsite. However it is interesting to note that for
pyrite, the gold leaching rates, ca. 4.5 10 5 mol m 2
s 1 are slightly lower than that for the other two
minerals. Such a result is consistent with the apparent
higher reactivity of pyrite than marcasite and pyrrhotite.
The non-oxidative dissolution of the mineral produces a
low concentration of dissolved sulfide, which is well
known to passivate gold leaching in cyanide solutions
(Fink and Putnam, 1950; Hedley and Tabachnick, 1968;
Weichselbaum et al., 1989; Jeffrey and Breuer, 2000).
3.5. Effect of the copper cyanides on the gold
leaching rate
One of the complications with studying the
leaching of gold in the presence of copper sulfides is
that there is the possibility of low free cyanide con-
centration due to the formation of copper cyanide species
such as Cu(CN)32 . Thus preliminary experiments were
carried where cuprous oxide was added to the cyanide
solution, and the copper concentration and gold leaching
2.0
1.5
[Fe] / ppm
1.0
0.5
0.0
6
105 r / mol m-2s-1
4
2 pyrite
pyrrhotite
marcasite
0
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
t / hr
Fig. 4. The iron concentration (top) and gold leaching rate (bottom) as
a function of the contact time for solutions containing 10 mmol/L
cyanide and 1 g/L sulfide minerals.
122 X. Dai, M.I. Jeffrey / Hydrometallurgy 82 (2006) 118125

5 4.4 280

240
4 4.0

cyanide:copper ratio
10mM CN-
105 r / mol m-2 s-1

12mM CN- 200

13.5mM CN-

[Cu] / ppm
3 3.6
160

2 3.2 120

80
1 2.8 without lead
10ppm lead
40 20ppm lead
100ppm lead
0 2.4
0 1 2 3 0 1 2 3 0
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
t / hr t / hr

Fig. 5. The gold leaching rate (left) and cyanide to copper ratio (right) Fig. 6. The effect of lead addition on the copper concentration vs. time
as a function of the contact time for solutions containing 2 mmol/L profile for solutions containing 13.5 mmol/L cyanide and 2.4 g/L
Cu2O and various cyanide concentrations. chalcocite.

rate were measured as a function of time. The results in

Fig. 5 show that Cu2O dissolved rapidly in the cyanide
solution, forming soluble copper cyanide complexes as
reflected in the low cyanide to copper ratio. For the
solution initially containing 10 mmol L 1 cyanide, it is
clear from Fig. 5 that the cyanide to copper ratio is below
3. Hence the dominant species in the solution would be
Cu(CN)2and Cu(CN)32. In contrast, when the solution
contained 13.5 mmol L 1 cyanide, the cyanide to copper
ratio is well over 3, and hence the solution would contain
free cyanide.
The effect of the copper to cyanide ratio on the gold
leaching rate is shown in Fig. 5. It is clear that the gold
leaching rate remains at ca. 4.5 10 5 mol m 2 s 1 as
long as there is sufficient free cyanide in solution. At the
cyanide to copper ratio of approximately 3, where most
of the copper cyanide is present as Cu(CN)32, reasonable
gold leaching rates of ca. 1.5 10 5 mol m 2 s 1 can still
be achieved. However, when the cyanide to copper ratio
drops to 2.5 and a large proportion of copper is present as
Cu(CN)2, the gold leaching rates are extremely low. This
suggests that Cu(CN)32 has a reasonable capability of
leaching gold according to Eq. (1), while Cu(CN)2
cyanide solutions; with 140 mg/L copper being observed
after 10 min, and 230 mg/L after 1 h. The high solubility
obviously poses a problem in cyanidation, as copper
cyanide complexes consume free cyanide and reduce the
gold leaching rate. In addition, the presence of dissolved
sulfide ions is known to be detrimental to the leaching of
gold. Thus experiments were performed to establish
whether the addition of 10, 20 or 100 mg/L lead could
reduce the solubility of the chalcocite. Fig. 6 shows that
the addition of 10 or 20 mg/L has little effect, whilst
100 mg/L lead does reduce the dissolution of chalcocite
with only 200 mg/L copper detected after 3 h. Despite
this, a reasonable quantity of sulfide would be leached
into the solution.
The gold leaching rate was then measured in solutions
that had been in contact with chalcocite for various times
up to 3 h (Fig. 7). It can be seen that the presence of
chalcocite in cyanide solution after 0.25 h dramatically
5
105 r / mol m-2 s-1

cannot. This conclusion is consistent with other 4

researchers' work (Jeffrey et al., 2002; Muir et al., without lead
10ppm lead
3
1991; Parsons et al., 1993; Zheng et al., 1995). 20ppm lead
100ppm lead

2
4Au 8CuCN2
3 O2 2H2 O4AuCN2
1
8CuCN2 4OH 1

3.6. Effect of chalcocite (Cu2S) on gold leaching rates 0

0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
t / hr
The gold leaching rate and the dissolved copper
concentration were measured for different contact time Fig. 7. The effect of lead addition on the leaching rate for gold in air
of the cyanide solution with chalcocite. The results saturated 13.5 mmol/L cyanide solutions after contact with 2.4 g/L
plotted in Fig. 6 show that chalcocite dissolves rapidly in chalcocite for various time intervals.
 X. Dai, M.I. Jeffrey / Hydrometallurgy 82 (2006) 118125 123

8
6
20 ppm lead
No lead
No galena
5

105 r / mol m-2 s-1

6 with galena

4
i / A m-2

4 3

2
2
1

0 0
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
-600 -500 -400 -300 -200 -100
t / hr
E / mV (SHE)
Fig. 9. The effect of 200 mg/L galena addition on the leaching rate of
Fig. 8. Polarization curves showing the effect of lead addition on the
gold in 13.5 mmol/L cyanide solutions after contact with 2.4 g/L
gold oxidation half reaction in 13.5 mmol/L cyanide solutions after
chalcocite for various time intervals.
contact with chalcocite for 3 h.

retards gold dissolution in the absence of lead, and where
10 mg/L lead was added. In the past it has been argued
that such an effect is due to the consumption of cyanide.
However, from the data in Fig. 6, the amount of copper
dissolved is only 140 mg/L and one would expect
sufficient free cyanide to leach the gold readily. Fig. 7
also shows that when 20 mg/L lead was added, the gold
leaching rate is substantially faster. These results indicate
that some other factor apart from cyanide consumption is
responsible for the adverse effect of chalcocite on gold
leaching, and this effect can be alleviated by lead
addition. It has been previously proposed that a passive
film of sulfur formed on the surface of gold may be
responsible for the reduced gold leaching rates in sulfide
containing solutions (Jeffrey and Breuer, 2000). If this is
the case, then the role of the added lead is to prevent the
passive film from forming. This has been observed for
synthetic solutions containing lead nitrate and sodium
sulfide (Jeffrey and Breuer, 2000).
It is worth noting that when 100 mg/L lead was added,
although the gold leaching rate was high initially, after
1 h or more of contact between the solution and mineral,
the leaching rate shown in Fig. 7 is severely hindered.
Such a result suggests that the addition of too much lead
polarization curve of the solution containing lead is
related to the formation and decomposition of a metallic
lead or goldlead alloy film (Deschenes et al., 2000;
Jeffrey and Ritchie, 2000a).
Further experiments were conducted to investigate
the addition of galena as a source of lead for improving
the dissolution of gold in cyanide solutions in the
presence of chalcocite. This was accomplished by
adding 200 mg/L galena into the bulk solution contain-
ing chalcocite. The results shown in Fig. 9 without
galena addition are the same as that shown in Fig. 7.
After 10 min the gold leaching rate in the presence of
galena and chalcocite is still low due to the slow
dissolution of galena. However after 1 h of leaching in
the presence of chalcocite, it is clear that the gold
leaching rate is significantly enhanced by the presence
of galena in the bulk solution cf. Fig. 7 with 20 mg/L
lead added into the bulk solution. The polarization curve
of gold oxidation in the solution that had been contacted
50
No mineral
Chalcocite + 20 ppm lead
Covellite + 20 ppm lead
Chalcocite
40 Covellite
Galena
[Au] / ppm

can be detrimental to the gold leaching process, and it has 30

been suggested in the past that overuse of lead could
result in the passivation of the gold surface, presumably 20
by lead hydroxide (Habashi, 1970).
The effect of lead on the gold oxidation half reaction 10
was studied using standard electrochemical techniques.
Fig. 8 shows the comparison of the polarization curves in 0
the solutions with and without lead after being in contact 0 1 2 3 4
t / hr
with chalcocite for 3 h. It is clear that the oxidation of
gold is active in the solution containing lead, whereas it Fig. 10. The effect of lead addition on gold dissolution in a solution
is passive in the absence of lead. This result is consistent containing 10 mmol/L cyanide, about 50 mg/L pure gold powder and
with the above conclusions. The peak appearing in the various sulfide minerals.
124 X. Dai, M.I. Jeffrey / Hydrometallurgy 82 (2006) 118125
with galena and chalcocite for 3 h was also similar to
that when 20 mg/L lead was added as lead nitrate.
3.7. Gold powder leaching in the presence of various
sulfide minerals
The experimental results shown above illustrate the
effect of galvanic interactions and mineral dissolution on
gold leaching separately. In order to study galvanic
interactions and mineral dissolution together, gold
powder leaching experiments were carried out in the
presence of ground sulfide minerals. The limitation of
these experiments is that a pure gold powder was used, as
compared to a gold/silver alloy in the other leaching
experiments. However, as shown in Fig. 10, the data
obtained from this experiment is very informative. In the
absence of minerals, the gold leaching rate was relatively
slow, with a gold concentration of 35 ppm being
obtained in 4 h (equivalent to 70% gold dissolution).
In the presence of galena, the leaching of gold was much
more rapid, consistent with the above discussion. In the
case where either chalcocite or covellite was present, the
gold leaches very slowly. After 4 h, only 15% gold was
leached in the presence of chalcocite, and only 7% gold
in the presence of covellite. After 24 h, the amount of
gold extracted was 59% and 36% in the presence of
chalcocite and covellite, respectively. These results are
consistent with a passive film formed on the surface of
gold when soluble sulfide is present in the solution.
Experiments performed with the addition of 20 mg/L
lead as lead nitrate to the cyanide solutions containing
chalcocite or covellite show much more rapid gold
leaching (Fig. 10) verifying the experiments carried out
using the REQCM.
4. Conclusions
For gold leaching in the presence of sulfide minerals,
there are two major mechanisms by which the sulfide can
impact on the gold leaching rate (a) through the galvanic
interaction between gold and the conducting mineral in
contact with gold and (b) through the dissolution of the
mineral which impacts on the solution speciation. An
electrochemical study of the oxidation of gold and
sulfide minerals in the cyanide solutions shows that none
of the mineral studied, including chalcocite, covellite,
galena, pyrite, pyrrhotite, marcasite and chalcopyrite, are
oxidized at more negative potentials than gold, and thus
do not cathodically protect the gold when in direct
contact with the mineral. Oxygen reduction occurs at
different rates on the sulfide mineral surfaces, and hence
when the gold is in contact with the mineral, the higher
cathodic current shifts the mixed potential more
positively, resulting in a higher dissolution rate.
The leaching behavior of gold in the presence of
sulfide minerals is quite complicated due to the
dissolution of the mineral to form sulfide in the solution
that then impacts on the gold leaching kinetics. It has
been shown that gold leaching in cyanide solutions is
severely hindered by the presence of chalcocite due to
the high solubility of this mineral in cyanide solutions.
The gold leaching rate in solutions containing chalcocite
can be improved by the addition of 20 mg/L lead during
the cyanide process. The role of lead is to promote the
precipitation of PbS and enhance the anodic oxidation of
gold via a goldlead alloy film. The addition of galena to
the cyanide solution containing chalcocite was shown to
have the same effect as the addition of lead nitrate.
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