Monday

Introduction to Hydrometallurgy division

During the introduction, a tour in the hydrometallurgy division facilities was made.
Laboratories, meeting rooms, sections such as gold, uranium and cyanide were visited.
They also gave us study material to introduce us to the fundamental concepts of the
processes used in hydrometallurgy.

According to the material we received and the discussion we did based on what we
read some of the main highlight ideas that we have are described below.

Hydrometallurgical process is associated to the use of aqueous chemistry for the
recovery of metals from ores, concentrates, or other intermediate material. In all cases
a reagent (acid or alkali) is added to dissolve the metal from the ore into the solution.

The major unit operations in hydrometallurgy are: Leaching, separation,
concentration and purification and precipitation and reduction. Some of the
techniques commonly used are listed in Figure 1.

•  Acidic or alkali
Leaching •  Metal dissolution

Separation,
concnetration •  SX, IX, Activated carbon,
cemtation
and purification

Precipitation
and •  Electrowinning o
pH adjustment
reduction

Figure 1. Unit Operations in Hydrometallurgy

It is important to know that each process flowsheet used depend on the size, nature,
grade and mineralogy of the ore, facilities e infrastructure, availability of reagents and
power generation. And there are many options to treat an ore according to the final
product requirement.


Tuesday

Basic Radiation

Radioactivity is known as the property of certain atoms to change spontaneously,
generating ionizing radiation. Its unit of measure (radiation absorption) in the
International System of Units (SI) is the sievert (symbol: Sv).

There are several types of radiation that depend on the mechanism and the ability to
penetrate materials, some of them are:

Alpha particles
Beta particles
Gamma Rays

Two types of contamination with ionizing radiation can be generated: an external,
through the eyes or the skin and another internal by breathing, swallowing and
contact with the skin. But there are ways to decrease the contamination as reducing
the exposure time, keeping distance to the source of radiation as far as possible and
using shielding methods such as the use of personal protection elements, as well as
avoiding food consumption in laboratories.

The most important thing we have learned is that ionizing radiation is invisible and
not directly detectable by human senses. Exposure to ionizing radiation causes
damage to living tissue, and can result in mutation, radiation sickness, cancer, and
death. We have to tried to minimize the damage

Since the ionizing radiation cannot be destroyed or degraded, we have to try to
minimize the damage that exposure to radiation can cause. We must always work
with care and precaution, taking all the necessary safety measures to diminish its
effects.


Pressure Oxidation (POX)

Pressure oxidation refers to the oxidation of sulphides, such as pyrite [FeS2],
performed in an autoclave at elevated temperature and pressure, usually in the
presence of oxidizing agents such as O2. The pressure oxidation employs temperatures
above the melting point of sulphur (119°C), preferably above 170°C and high oxygen
overpressures up to 2000 kPa.

One of its main applications is the treatment of refractory gold ores where the gold
particles are locked within the sulphide minerals. The POX liberates the gold, allowing
it to be economically recovered by conventional gold extraction processes such as
cyanidation.

Within the autoclave high-purity oxygen mixes with the slurry to achieve the
oxidation of sulphides for that reason the oxygen pressure must be taken into account.
The Mass transport of O2 cannot be the controlling step of the process; therefore the
calculation of the necessary oxygen pressure is required in order to achieve an
optimum oxidation of sulphide minerals.

Precipitation of iron as hematite according to equation 1 and the generation of acid
are the major advantages of the process.

Fe2(SO4)3 + 3H2O → Fe2O3 + 3H2SO4 ∼ 200ºC (1)

However it is an expensive technology, due to the temperatures and pressures that
are used. The pressure oxidation process requires the use of corrosion resistant
equipment, a strict control system and a high level of maintenance. The ancillary
equipment associated with the autoclave is also quite expensive.




Uranium test work

The uranium ores are processed in different ways depending on their grade. In most
of the cases the ore is leached after being crushed and ground and sometimes a
concentration step (flotation) could be used. Then, the uranium in the pregnant
solution is extracted using organic solutions (solvent extraction) or ion exchange
resins. Finally, concentrated uranium is precipitated as solid and the called "yellow
cake" is obtained.

The leaching of uranium could be acidic or alkaline depending on the impurities, the
structure and the characteristics of the ore and both are affected by the temperature,
reagent concentration and particle size.

For acidic leaching, sulphuric acid is added in most of the cases and the gangue
constituents control its consumption. Carbonate minerals are often the principal acid
consumers. When this content is high, the acid leaching is not economic; therefore, an
alkaline leaching is used.

In alkaline leaching the most common reagent added is sodium carbonate. Reagents
consumption is low and solutions are relatively non-corrosive. Also, alkaline leaching
tends to be more selective, which mean the solution will contain fewer impurities. For
that reason the metal oxide can be directly precipitated, without a purification stage.

Some gold ores contain uranium, which must be removed before the gold extraction
by conventional cyanidation. In this case, the uranium could be a by-product and the
leaching process is a pre treatment.

Due to the high level of radiation, in Mintek, the yellow cake is not obtained. The
solution and the solid must be disposed in a safe place in order to prevent
environmental contamination.

Wednesday

Gold refractory ores

Cyanidation is widely used for gold extraction. According to equation 2, gold complex
with cyanide and then could be removed from the solution using activated carbon.

4Au0 + 8CN- + O2 + 2H2O → 4Au(CN)-2 + 4OH- (2)

Precious metals are often associated with sulphides minerals that in some cases
present dissolution problems; oxygen and cyanide consumption increase then the
required amounts are not enough which inhibits the extraction of the valuable
component. This behaviour is called refractoriness.

The refractory gold ores have been associated to the resistance that these materials
offer to the direct extraction of precious metals (mainly gold and silver) by
conventional techniques of cyanidation. In most cases the gold extraction is less than
90%.

The refractory behaviour can be caused mainly because gold is locked, in most cases,
within sulphide minerals, presence of other minerals such as copper bearing minerals
and the presence of carbon in the ore. The size and location of the precious metals
within the sulphide matrix determines the process required for their release and
subsequent extraction

When gold is locked in sulphide minerals, milling to break sulphides and release the
gold, or oxidize the sulphide minerals and expose the gold particles can be used as pre
treatment for the refractory gold ores before the conventional cyanidation process.

One of the main processes used as pre treatment to oxidize the sulphide mineral is the
pressure oxidation, but it might be used when the ore has a high grade or has been
concentrate before.

In presence of a high content of carbon, thiosulfate is commonly used because the
carbon present in the ore cannot absorb the complex formed with gold, then gold
losses are minimized.

Leaching & precipitate

After the leaching process, purification and precipitation step is required in order to
obtain the saleable final product. The two most well known techniques are
electrowinning and pH adjustment to precipitate intermediates products such as
oxides or hydroxides.

There are many flowsheets in the industry depending on the ore, its composition,
metal of interest and impurities, but some of them follow the same fundamental
principles.

For example, in copper recovery from oxides, a solvent extraction step followed by an
electrowinnig stage is usually used. In this last copper in solution Cu2+ is reduced to
copper metal Cu0 and the copper cathodes are produced with 99.99% purity.

Some other elements of interest presents in the ore such as cobalt, can be precipitated
as a by-product in the form of hydroxide using milk magnesia (MgO) and in some
cases recoveries up to 80% can be achieved.

Another way of precipitation can be achieved adding H2 under pressure to the metal
solution. Also ammonia can be used to adjust pH and precipitate intermediate
products, but the most important thing is to know that there are many combinations,
reagents, and techniques to obtain the desired product, according to the requirements
of the market and the available resources.


Cyanide training

Cyanide can be found naturally in almonds and cassavas and can be used at the mining
industry for extraction and flotation. The cyanide ion (CN-) is the active agent in the
gold leaching process and it is the one that dissolves the gold contained in the ore
forming the complex gold-cyanide Au(CN)-2.

According to ICMI (International cyanide management code) 5 mg of cyanide can cost
your life and the occupational exposure limit is 10 ppm (RSA).

The cyanide can be in different forms: free cyanide (CN-), wet cyanide or WED
cyanide, SAD cyanide, cyanate and total cyanide. The most toxic form of cyanide is
free cyanide, which includes the cyanide anion itself and hydrogen cyanide, HCN,
either in a gaseous or aqueous state. For that reason the pH is very important and it
has to be adjust to above 10.5 in order to avoid the formation of HCN gas.

We should always remember:

! ∼ 100 to 200 mg of cyanide is enough to kill a person
 ! Air above solids or solution containing cyanide may contain HCN gas at
dangerous levels
! The cyanide can be absorbed through skin, mouth, stomach, eyes and lungs
from air or solution and affects the body the same way.
! Contamination with cyanide can cause death by suffocation (asphyxia)
! Cyanide is NOT bio – accumulative.

It is important to know that there are methods to degrade cyanide such as the use of
hydrogen peroxide and ozone. Also, the use of the personal protection elements is
very important to minimize the exposure to cyanide and avoid a tragedy.

Friday

Ion Exchange (IX)

In mining industry, ion exchange is the processes used for purification, separation or
concentration, of aqueous metal-containing solutions (PLS pregnant leaching
solution) using resins as typical ion exchangers.

Ion exchangers could be either cation exchangers that exchange positively charged
ions (cations) or anion exchangers that exchange negatively charged ions (anions).
The resin must be converted, then, according to the component of interest that will be
extracted from the solution.

Particularly for metals, a cationic resin can be used. Its conversion can be carried out
with sulphuric acid, which will provide the H+ to be exchanged.

In the general process the resin is contacted with the metal solution to be loaded,
removing the metal values selectively from the leach solution leaving behind the
impurities. Once the metals loading on the resin the elution process is carried out in
order to obtain the eluate (concentrated metal solution) that will eventually go to the
precipitation stage.

The efficiency of IX depends on the resin characterization, solution composition,
solution pH, as well as the type of ligand or functional group attached to the resin. For
that reason is important to test all the different conditions of the process in order to
obtain the highest possible efficiency:

! Resins pre treatment (conversion of resin in the required form)
! Selectivity (determine optimum operating conditions such as pH, Eh)
! Equilibrium adsorption isotherm
! Kinetics test (residence time)
! Mini columns test (resin breakthrough capacity)
! Physical properties of resin