UNIVERSITY OF DAR ES SALAAM

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (CoET)

DEPARTIMENT OF CHEMICAL AND MINING ENGINEERING

MM498: FINAL YEAR PROJECT I.

TITLE: THE IVESTIGATION OF THE EFFICIENCY OFGOLD DRESSING

AGENT OVER CYANIDE IN LEACHING OF GOLD

STUDENT NAME: HERBERT OSCAR.

REG #: 2011-04-03822

PROGRAMME: B.Sc. IN MINERAL PROCESSING ENGINEERING.

ACADEMIC YEAR: 2014/2015

SUPERVISOR: DR. KANDO JANGA

Signature……………………………………
ABSTRACT.
This report aim at identifying the appropriate leaching reagent among the Gold Dressing Agent
and the Cyanide. The Gold Dressing agent is the new product that composes of (NH ¿¿ 2)2 ¿ , he
NaSiO 3 and also the NaOH and NaPO3 in the right proportion. The project is more practical
which will be done by first grinding the ore sample, doing the sieve analysis which will then
leached by the addition of water, lime for pH controlling. Then obtained solution after the
leaching will be filtered to obtain a concentrate of the leached amount. Then this concentrate
filtered will be taken to the AAS machine for gold content analysis.

It should be noted that these conclusions and recommendations will be done while considering
only the three parameters which are the particle size, the residence time and the dosage of the
reagents. This is attributed by the lack of fund to buy the samples, the limited time given to do
this work for there were only three weeks of doing the practical. Hence it is recommended that
someone interested may start from where this work will end and then give new recommendations
on his/her findings for better conclusions.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT.................................................................................................................................................i

TABLE OF CONTENTS.............................................................................................................................ii

1.0 INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................1

2. PROBLEM STATEMENT......................................................................................................................3

3.0 THE OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT...............................................................................................4

3.1 THE MAIN OBJECTIVE..................................................................................................................4

3.2 THE SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES;..................................................................................................4

4. ACTION PLAN OF THE PROJECT......................................................................................................5

5. HYPOTHESIS.........................................................................................................................................6

6. THE METHODOLOGY.........................................................................................................................7

7.1 LEACHING THEORY......................................................................................................................8

7.1.1 The Methods of Leaching Process.............................................................................................8

7.1.1 The Heap Leaching.....................................................................................................................9

7.1.2 Dump Leaching........................................................................................................................10

7.1.3 Vat Leaching.............................................................................................................................10

7.1.4 Insitu Leaching.........................................................................................................................11

7.1.5 Agitation Leaching...................................................................................................................11

7.2 LEACHING OBJECTS...................................................................................................................12

7.3 GOLD CYANIDATION.................................................................................................................12

7.4 GOLD DISSOLUTION...................................................................................................................15

7.5 FACTORS AFFECTING THE RATE OF GOLD CYANIDATION..............................................16

7.5.1 The Size of Gold Particles........................................................................................................16

7.5.2 The Free Cyanide Concentration..............................................................................................17

 7.5.3 Slurry pH..................................................................................................................................18

7.5.4 Temperature..............................................................................................................................19

7.5.5 Dissolved Oxygen;....................................................................................................................19

7.5.6 Time Residence........................................................................................................................19

7.5.7 Agitation...................................................................................................................................20

7.5.8 Impurities;.................................................................................................................................20

7.6 THE GOLD DRESSING AGENT...................................................................................................20

7.6.1 About the Chemical..................................................................................................................20

7.6.2 Chemical Composition of the Product......................................................................................20

7.6.3 Product Performance.................................................................................................................21

7.6.4 Model of Application................................................................................................................21

7.6.5 Method of Application..............................................................................................................21

7.6.6 Other Product Features.............................................................................................................22

7.6.7 Factors that Affects the Rate of Leaching using the Gold Dressing Agent...............................23

8.1 The Equipment................................................................................................................................25

8.2 The Chemicals and Reagents...........................................................................................................25

8.3 The Experimental Set Up.................................................................................................................25

8.4 The Experimental Procedures..........................................................................................................25

8.4.1 Leaching procedures.................................................................................................................25

8.4.2 Filtration Procedures.................................................................................................................26

9. Bibliography..........................................................................................................................................27
LIST OF FIGURES.

Figure 1 The heap prepared ready for leaching...........................................................................................9

Figure 2 the flow sheet for the heap processes..........................................................................................10

Figure 3 The dump ore leaching................................................................................................................11

Figure 4 Devices to produce agitation.......................................................................................................12

Figure 5 The overall gold dissolution process...........................................................................................15

Figure 6 The residue gold concentration against the average size............................................................16

Figure 7 The effect of cyanide concentration on gold recovery (Ling, 1996)............................................17

Figure 8 The graph of Gold in Solution against the pH.............................................................................18

Figure 9 The graph showing the effect of temperature in gold recovery....................................................19

Figure 10 The gold dressing agent package. (co & Ltd, 2014).................................................................22
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Gold is a natural element which consists of the properties of having the symbol Au and atomic
number of 79. It is a dense, soft, malleable and ductile metal with an attractive bright yellow
color and luster that is maintained without tarnishing in air or water.

Chemically gold is a transition and group 11element.it is one of the least reactive chemical
elements, solid under standard condition. The metal therefore occurs often in free element as
native form, as grains in rocks, in veins and alluvial deposit.

Gold resist attacks by individual acids. It can be dissolved by only a few solutions including
sodium cyanide (NaCN), the Gold Dressing Agent(GDA), potassium cyanide (KCN), aqua regia
(a powerful mixture of 25 per cent nitric acid (HNO3) and 75 per cent hydrochloric acid (HCl)),
and a small number of other special reagents. Sodium cyanide and the Gold Dressing Agent are
said to be the most common and efficiency gold reagents used during leaching. (Mark J.
Logsdon, April 1999)

Cyanide is a general term for a group of chemicals containing carbon and nitrogen. Cyanide
compounds include both naturally occurring and human-made (anthropogenic) chemicals. It is
one of the few chemical reagents that dissolve gold in water. Cyanide has been used in metal
extraction since 1887and is now safely used and managed in gold recovery around the world.
Gold mining operations use very dilute solutions of sodium cyanide, typically in the range
of0.01% and 0.05% cyanide (100 to 500 parts per million). (Mark J. Logsdon, April 1999).

The cyanide normally is used in different areas like road salt as an anti-caking additive;
Hydrogen cyanide vapor has been widely used to exterminate rodents and large predators, the
remaining cyanide is used in the production of sodium cyanide which is used in the mining
activities especially in the gold means of recovery.

The Gold dressing Agent is a new dressing agent applicable to heap leaching, pond leaching
and carbon leaching of micro-series gold-bearing oxidized ore which is a high-tech patented
product. In the production of gold mining industry, the product has many advantages such as
simple operation (similar to the conventional cyanidation), high leaching rate, short leaching

1
time, low toxicity and environmental protection, convenient transportation and storage. (co &
Ltd, 2014).

The gold dressing agent is mainly more applicable to deal directly with highly iron and highly
sulfide ore processed successfully. Suitable minerals including oxidized ore, primary ore,
Cyanide tailing, cassiterite, electrum and Pyrite slag are both dealt by this reagent. (Aiweishing,
2014).

Both of the reagents which are the gold dressing agent and the cyanide as stated area are meant
for gold dissolution.

The aim of this work is to identify how these two may be compared and which should fit in the
industry while considering both efficiencies of the two and their effects to the environment. Not
only that but also the project aims at finding the way at which among the two reagents (sodium
cyanide and Gold Dressing Agent) is more profitable in its recovery. Hence the leaching is going
to be done on the sample where in this work only the parameters that are going to be varied
includes the residence time of leaching, the ppm dosage for GDA and the Cyanide, and the
particle size.

The environment effects of both reagents is going to be specified and how these effects can be
prevented before they occur during the process of leaching.

This work is organized such that it shows the main objective, the specific objective, the problem
statement and the methodologies including theories behind each product, their composition and
the mode of application (the mechanism behind each of the two), used including literatures cited
and alike.

2
2. PROBLEM STATEMENT
Since 1880 cyanide has been used as the means of gold recovery up to date where the process
has been controversial since its inception due to the poisonous nature of it and the threat it poses
to the environment and the people working in the extraction facilities.

Nevertheless the leaching of gold with the cyanide as the means of gold recovery results into
given concentration which should be maximized for better profit. Therefore it has become a
challenge on how to use the reagent. Since it is important to have high recovery at the same time
protecting the environment and the workforce present the new method needs to be introduced
which is the Gold Dressing Agent and see whether it is profitable to use than the cyanide
chemical.

3
3.0 THE OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT

3.1 THE MAIN OBJECTIVE

To investigate the efficiency of Gold Dressing Agent over Cyanide in leaching of gold.

3.2 THE SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES;

 To determine the residence time of the gold dressing agent
 Determination of the dosage of the Gold dressing agent.
 To determine the fractional composition range for the gold dressing agent.
 Determine the different fractions compositions
 Determine the dosage of the cyanide.
 Determine the time residence of the cyanide.

4
4. ACTION PLAN OF THE PROJECT
This project will consist of different activities that are to be done to accomplish the task. Hence
in order for one to undertake this project the following are the plans which are going to be
followed to meet the requirements of the course. The divisions made are only the approximately
time which can be switched depending on the situation and the need intended. The table 1
explains the action plan of the project.

THE ACTIVITY PERIOD

 THE LITERATURE REVIEW

 CONSULTATIONS ON THE
PLOBLEM.
NOVEMBER 2014 TO JANUARY 2015
 REPORT WRITING OF THE
REVIEW

VISITING OF THE GST LABORATORY FEBRUARY 2015

AND THE DATA COLLECTION

THE ANALYSIS OF DATA AND THE END OF FEBRUARY TO MAY 2015

PREPARATION OF THE REPORT

FINALIZING OF THE REPORT AND THE MAY TO JUNE 2015

PRESENTATIONS

REPORT SUBMISSION TO THE JUNE 2015

CORDINATOR

5
5. HYPOTHESIS
It will be expected that the recovery of the Gold dressing agent will be greater than that of the
Cyanide. If the results which are obtained will be as expected then the theoretical and
experimental value will be close to one another. Not only that but also the graphs will be
discussed according to the nature which they will give.

6
6. THE METHODOLOGY
In order to meet the specific objectives as stated in above one has to pass different stages or
activities. Therefore the following activities have to be done before the process of investigating
and providing the conclusions to the main objectives.

 Reading of different text books and explorer different information from the website and
web pages regarding the recovery of gold by the use of each of the reagent (cyanide and
the Gold Dressing Agent) and understand how they are used to treat the ore, citing out the
factors to which gold is extracted and its conditions and how they vary.

 Continuously consulting of the supervisor, different mineral and mining engineers for
more detail on how to write the project and the means of collecting the engineering data
required in drawing conclusions. The training officers, the engineers in charge of the
mineral processing laboratory the chemistry technicians found at the area where the
project is being undertaken so that everything wrote and done is done as it should be
done.

 Generally the three parameters are going to be used as the reference because they readily
available hence one may use the different approach to do the same problems and obtain
the answer of the question.

Experimental plan

 A short survey has to be done from the sample preparations to see whether the ball mills
for grinding of the sample, the sieves for sieving, the leaching tanks and driving rolling
mills to see whether they properly function for the experiment to take place so that we
minimize the error during the whole process.

 The collection of sample and ready for leaching. The sample will be sampled by the use
of the sieving analysis.

7
7.0 THEORETICAL PRINCIPLES.

7.1 LEACHING THEORY.

Leaching is the process which involves the dissolving of the sold material into the liquid, which
implies that, the process is heterogeneous that is, involving both the liquid and solid material.
Therefore there is the transfer of materials between liquid and solid which creates a phase region.
This has been cited out by House J and Marsden, (1992), who said that heterogeneous reactions
are controlled either by the inherent chemical reaction kinetics or by the rate of mass transfer of
the individual reacting species across a phase boundary.

Leaching is also defined as the extraction of metals from ores to aqueous solutions by means of
chemicals or reagents. The leaching process as cited by (Adams, 2005) is an extractive
metallurgy technique which converts metals into soluble salts in aqueous media. In leaching
process two types are imployed which are the non-oxidative where the chemical dissolution
process is done using water, acid or an alkali as reagent and the oxidative leaching that involves
the use of oxidizing agents such as O2, Cl2, Fe3+, Cu2+, etc.

7.1.1 The Methods of Leaching Process.

There are a lot of difeerent methodes or mechanisms through which the leaching process
operates. Leaching method for an ore depends on the grade of the ore and the ease with which
the mineral values are dissolved in a particular reagent. The fololwing are some of the most
common leaching process operates.

 the In situ leaching,

 the heap leaching,
 stirred tank leaching,
 the dump leaching,
 the percolation leaching,
 the autoclave leaching as well as
 the pressure leaching.

Generally the methods analyzed above uses different reagents according to its principle of
operations. These reagents include the cyanide or the gold dressing agent, etc. which is used as
the gold dissolution, the water, the lime for pH controlling, and the dilute sulphuric acid where
each of the reagents depends on what kind of the mineral ore one is going to leach.

8
According to the report Adams, (2005) Gold and silver can be recovered from their ores by a
variety of methods, including gravity concentration, flotation and agitated tank leaching. He says
that the selection of leaching depends on lot of factors such as the cost of operation, the residence
time, the risk of operation, the efficiency of the method that is the differential recovery is not
sufficiency to justify the added investments as well as the reserves present.

7.1.1 The Heap Leaching.

Heap leaching in brief is the leaching method in which the mineral ore or concentrate is piled in
a heap and a leaching solution is distributed over the surface to leach metal values from that
heap. According to what (Adams, 2005) recorded, the heap leaching is the one that involves
stacking of metal-bearing ore into a heap on an impermeable pad, irrigating the ore for an
extended period of time of say (weeks, months or years) with a chemical solution to dissolve the
metals, and collecting the pregnant solution as it percolates out from the base of the heap. The
following Error: Reference source not found shows the heap leach installation at Mineral Ridge
which is ready to be leached as shown by (Adams, 2005).

Figure 1 The heap prepared ready for leaching (Adams, 2005)

9
.

7.1.2 Dump Leaching.

Dump leaching is an industrial leaching method employed in order to extract minerals and metals
from mined ores. In dump leaching, mined ore is stacked on a leach pad immediately after it is
extracted from the deposit. Dump leaching is carried out on rejected off grade material that
during normal mining has been put aside in big dumps at the mine site (Sandstrom, 2010).

One should note that the problems may arise if the base of the dump is not well prepared for it
may lead to loses of solution and the environmental pollution. (Sandstrom, 2010). The following
Figure 2 below explains the dump leaching arrangement with some of the operations processes
like the liquor distribution, liquor conditioning and alike as cited out by (Heap leaching -
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 2014).

Figure 2 The dump ore leaching (Wikipedia, 2014)

7.1.3 Vat Leaching.

Vat leaching is the leaching process that involves contacting material, which has usually
undergone size reduction and classification, with leach solution in large tanks or containers. The
leaching solution can either be parcolated upward from the bottom of the vat or downwad
(Sandstrom, 2010).

10
Normally the vat leaching is the batch operation where the leaching solution after being in
contact with the ore they are removed and the leaching solutions are then replaced by the new
ones. The vat leaching is important due to the fact that it has the advantages of minimum reagent
consumption, production of high grade pregnant solution, no use of expensive thickeners or
filters and the metal recovery may be up to 95% (Rugano, 2010).

The figure below explains the vat leaching which is already been loaded with the leaching
solution for gold leaching as cited from Nyarugusu small scale mine.

7.1.4 Insitu Leaching.

In situ leaching is the leaching in which the cyanide solution is directly applied to an ore of low
grade ores directly to the ground. It is through allowing the leaching solution to solubilise the
mineral of interest directly in the ore body. The requirement of this method is that the ore body
should be relatively porous so that the solution can penetrate and the layer benealth the ore body
is impermeable to avoid leakage of the solution to the ground water.

7.1.5 Agitation Leaching

The agitation leaching is also normally known as the suspension leaching, stireed tank or reactor
leaching. Normallly the method is too cost that it needs to be applied to the fine value grained
materials in a high grade ore bodies and concentrates (Sandstrom, 2010).

Leaching is performed in steel tanks and the solids are kept in suspension by pneumatic or
mechanical agitation. For a mechanical agitation motor driven impellers are normally employed.
Some of the impellers used can be listed as follows; propellers (high-speed, low viscosity)
turbines (Moderate viscosity) and the high-efficiency impellers Figure 3 below shows some
types of impellors as they are cited by (Martin, 2003)

11
 Figure 3 Devices to produce agitation (Martin, 2003)

7.2 LEACHING OBJECTS

Each of the processes above requires different leaching objects for it to accomplish its leaching.
It should be noted that the choice of leaching method and leaching reagents depends on what the
metals are to be leached and in what kind of form are metals present. Hence the various leaching
systems as classified by Sandstrom,( 2010) are as leaching of metals, leaching of oxides,
leaching of sulphides, leaching of other minerals as well as electrochemical leaching.

That brings us to the discussion of the different mechanisms occuring during leaching of gold
using the different reagents and their advantanges.

7.3 GOLD CYANIDATION.

Cyanide is the chemical composition composing of carbon metal and hydrogen atom. The
cyanide used in gold extraction is the sodium cyanide compound. The cyanide is normally a
white sold that mainly resembles the color of sugar.

Gold cyanidation, also called cyanide leaching, is a process used to extract gold from raw ore
taken from the ground. It uses cyanide to dissolve the gold within the rock, which, itself, is not
soluble in cyanide. The gold is then drawn out in a liquid form that can be treated to remove the
cyanide. Almost 90% of all gold extracted commercially is done so by cyanidation. The process
12
has been controversial since its inception due to the poisonous nature of cyanide and the threat it
poses to the environment and the people working in the extraction facilities.

The cyanidation process begins after the gold has been discovered and the raw ore separated
from the ground, often by explosive means. The ore is ground up to better facilitate the leaching
process. Breaking up the ore into finer pieces is called heap leaching. Processing the ore
immediately without crushing it is known as dump leaching. Each process, however, uses
cyanide to remove the gold from the ore (Owens, 2014).

Simple cyanide salts, for example, sodium cyanide (NaCN), potassium cyanide (KCN) and
calcium cyanide [Ca (CN2)], have been widely used as sources of cyanide leaching. They
dissolve and ionize in water to form their respective metal cation and free cyanide ions (CN -) as
presented in equation 1 below:
−¿ ¿
−¿+CN ¿
NaCN ⇄ Na …………………………………….…………………. (1)

Cyanide ions hydrolyze in water to form hydrogen cyanide (HCN) and hydroxyl (OH -) ions
which also increase pH. At pH about 9.3, half of total cyanide exists as hydrogen cyanide and
half as free cyanide ions. At higher pH the cyanide exist as free cyanide ions. (Srithammavut,
2008).

According to (Marsden, 1992): Undesirable reactions might occur during leaching because
hydrogen cyanide, as well as free cyanide, can be oxidized with oxygen to form cyanate (CNO -)
which does not dissolve gold and thus reduces the free cyanide concentration. The equations 2 to
4 explain the situation.

−1 −¿¿
CN + H 2 0⇄ HCN +OH ………………………………….……………… (2)

−¿+2 H 2 0 ¿
HCN +3 O2 ⇄ 4 CNO ……………………………….……………… (3)

−¿¿

3 CN −1 +O2 ⇄ 3 CNO−¿+2OH ¿
……………………………………………... (4)

13
In (Adams, 2005), the cyanide process was based on the fact that dilute cyanide solutions will
dissolve gold from its ores. Not only that but also that when the solution is brought into contact
with zinc, gold will be precipitated from the solution.

It should be noted that the cyanidation process is commonly used in the CIL leaching processes
where the technology aims at dissolving the gold in the cyanide solution as it is shown in the
below

14
7.4 GOLD DISSOLUTION
The gold dissolution is the term that describes the processes of extracting the gold from low
grade ore through conversion of gold to a water soluble form for easy formation of coordination
complexes of ions hence desorption.

The gold dissolution is also defined as the electrochemical reaction in which oxygen takes up
electrons at one part of the metallic surface (the cathodic zone), while the metal gives them up at
the other electrode (the anodic zone) (Adams, 2005).

The dissolution of gold is controlled by mainly water, oxygen as well as cyanide which normally
react according to the following general equation as shown in equation 5

4 Au+8 NaCN + O 2+2 H 2 O → 4 Na[ Au ( CN 2 ) ]+ 4 NaOH ……….………….. (5)

From the above equation the oxygen is normally removed through two different two routes as
follows below (see equation 6).
2−¿+ 4 O H−¿ ¿ ¿

4 Au+8 CN −¿+O +2 H
2 2 O → 4 Au(CN ) ¿
…………………….……… (6) (Rugano, 2010) that is the

Gold + Free cyanide ion + oxygen + water results into Gold cyanide complex ion + hydroxyl
ions which was structured by resource book of leaching and adsorption process as

Figure 4 The overall gold dissolution process (Rugano, 2010)

The aim of leaching is to consume the reactants to produce the gold complex in solution.

15
7.5 FACTORS AFFECTING THE RATE OF GOLD CYANIDATION
Leaching parameters have been widely studied to optimize the performance of the cyanidation
process. Before the cyanide application the gold has to be liberated from its ore so that the
cyanide can efficiently dissolve properly the gold present in the ore. Therefore the rate of gold
cyanidation depends upon the following factors,

7.5.1 The Size of Gold Particles.

Leaching increases with decrease in particles size, if the particles are too large they cannot leach
properly and hence will result in the loss of gold in the tailings that is the tailings will consist a
higher value of gold which actually is not the intention of leaching.

According to Resource, (2010) the gold must be in a fine particulate form (from the grinding
circuit). The feed slurry must have an 80% passing size of 75um to achieve suitable gold
recovery (refer to cyclone and grinding modules).

Not only that but also Srithammavut, (2008) says that This is because smaller particle size
provides larger contacting surface area between solid and liquid and thus increases the rate. The
results which were similar have been obtained by de Andrade Lima and hodouin,( 2005 ) who
presented the residual gold concentration in ore particle as a function of the ore particle size, as
shown in Figure 5. Therefore there should be the decrease in size especially during grinding so
that the sample or the grinded ore can lead to higher recovery. Nevertheless the overgrinding
should be avoided for it may lead to poor leaching of the metal of interest.

16
 Figure 5 The residue gold concentration against the average size

7.5.2 The Free Cyanide Concentration.

‘Free cyanide” is the term used to describe both the cyanide ion ¿ ¿that is dissolved in the process
water and any hydrogen cyanide (HCN) that is formed in solution. The solid sodium cyanide
briquettes dissolve in water to form sodium ion and the cyanide anion ¿ ¿. The cyanide anion then
combines with hydrogen ion to form molecules. Therefore increasing cyanide concentration
increases the recovering of gold.

There must be enough or sufficient free cyanide ions in solution to dissolve all the gold in the
slurry otherwise it will be lost to tailings. The more gold which has to be leached the more
cyanide is required. The Figure 6 below shows the free cyanide concentration in relation to
leaching rates.

17
 Figure 6 The effect of cyanide concentration on gold recovery (Ling, 1996).

7.5.3 Slurry pH.

pH is the measure of acidity or alkalinity of the particular solution. It is measured in terms of
hydrogen concentration. The pH of the solution containing the cyanide should be controlled so
that we control the cyanide dissolved from circulating to the environment When it is monitored
properly it prevents reagent losses and potential production of toxic gases that is emitted to the
environment. [Hydrogen cyanide gas (HCN)].

18
Figure 7 The graph of Gold in Solution against the pH

7.5.4 Temperature.
In general the increase in temperature increases the rate of gold dissolution. Though the
temperature has to be increased for high dissolution it is discouraged to increase the temperature
to more than what is necessary for increasing the temperature reduces the oxygen solubility
during leaching.

19
 Figure 8 The graph showing the effect of temperature in gold recovery

7.5.5 Dissolved Oxygen;

Oxygen is one of the reagents consumed during cyanidation and a deficiency in dissolved oxygen
slows leaching rate. Therefore the increase in dissolved oxygen increases the rate of dissolution of
gold.

7.5.6 Time Residence

The increase in the time of leaching increases the rate of gold desorption. That is the longer the gold
particles are in contact with cyanide the more the gold that will be leached hence the rate of recovery
increases.

7.5.7 Agitation.
Effective agitation increases the rate of leaching simply because it increases the surface for the
unreacted cyanide ions to leach more gold from the particles of the particular solute on.

20
7.5.8 Impurities;
The sample normally contains other metals and minerals that are associated by gold and they
also dissolve in alkaline cyanide solution. Some of them have the potential to consume cyanide
and oxygen as well as producing substance that will slow down the rate of gold leaching. Hence
the more the sample consists of unwanted minerals the less is the recovery of pure gold leading
to the increase in the procedures of recovery of gold. Some of these metals are like silver and
copper.

7.6 THE GOLD DRESSING AGENT.

7.6.1 About the Chemical

The gold dressing agent is the new chemical which is used in gold extraction. It is the chemical
used in heap leaching, pond leaching and carbon leaching of micro-series gold-bearing oxidized
ore ， which is a high-tech patented product. This new product was developed and is sold in
Hong Kong Road Qingdao Shandong, China. (co & Ltd, 2014)

7.6.2 Chemical Composition of the Product

Gold Dressing Agent composes of different elements as they are traced from its original. Some
of the composition includes the Sc( NH ¿¿ 2)2 ¿, the NaSiO 3 and also the NaOH and NaPO3 .

7.6.3 Product Performance

When one says the product performance he/she reflects to the standard at which a given product
functions. The product performance is said to be Q/SHHG01-2011. Its recovery was stated to
range from 75%-96.6% as shown by Aiweishing,( 2014). This was due to the experiment
conducted in 2014.

7.6.4 Model of Application

This new product is used mainly in areas including the heap leaching, pond leaching and carbon
leaching of micro-series gold-bearing oxidized ore.

21
7.6.5 Method of Application.
The method of application of this product for heap leaching is centered on the following
principles. These principals show also the conditions at which the reagent works effectively.
Therefore the methods of applications are
 It is recommended for the user to carry out a galley proof test suitable for
production conditions before using this product.
 The product is in the alkaline mixture (PH=11.6), in which the alkaline medium
(CaO2 or NaOH) is taken as a stabilizer and cleaning agent. Before the product is
used, PH value shall be adjusted and maintained (test PH value of 11.14 normally
is the best effects) according to ore properties.
 In accordance with ore properties and grade, it is recommended to prepare
chemical solution by concentration from 0.03% to 0.05%.
 Aqueous solution alkalinity and solution concentration shall be given regular
detection. If necessary, adjust alkalinity and solution concentration.
 It is recommended to take good activated carbon as the auxiliary collector;
 Regular detections shall be made to determine Au content in the mineralizing
solution and adsorption effects of activated carbon.
 Ambient temperature has a certain influence in the leaching speed and leaching
rate, so it is recommended to use the product when the ambient temperature is
above 10 ℃.
 Pregnant solution and lean solution can be reused in the production. (co & Ltd,
2014)

22
 Figure 9 The gold dressing agent package. (co & Ltd, 2014)

7.6.6 Other Product Features

The advantage of this product compare with other similar products or technology is simple
operating, easy to grasp, even a novice expert level customers can quickly grasp and apply it.
Non-cyanide Gold Agent and pharmaceutical technology has the following characteristics:

 Suitable for difficult, easy processing ore, not affected by various elements associated
with the influence and the restriction, the gold recovery rate can reach 75%-96.6%,
according to the current domestic and global gold and silver ore survey date analysis. The
traditional sodium cyanide process technology of gold extraction is very difficult to
extract the gold from ore with high arsenic high sulfur and lead, copper, zinc, iron,
antimony and other tailings slag.

 It is a kind of new environmental protection technology for gold extraction process,

different from any previous gold extraction process, does not contain any cyanide,
nontoxic to the environment.

 Directly operating and producing under the normal temperature.

23
  It is proved by the production test that the dressing agent has the higher leaching rate and
the alkalinity is easy to reduce compared with the extraction of gold by cyanidation.
Please timely test the pH and solution concentration and supplement required dressing
agent in a timely way so that you obtain the high leaching rate.

 It has been proved that the product has less toxic hence friendly to the human around the
areas working with it and the environment at large.
 The product is not flammable and explosive without radioactivity. (co & Ltd, 2014).

7.6.7 Factors that Affects the Rate of Leaching using the Gold Dressing Agent
The factors that affect the rate of dissolution using Gold Dressing Agent have been analyzed and
found to be the same as those which affects the dissolution of gold using the cyanide. Though
these factors are the same as those of cyanide their difference is only in their effects and the
amount required to affect the leaching. They include both;
 The strength of the Gold Dressing Agent solution. The Gold Dressing Agent
consumption during gold leaching will depend not only on the gold content of the
ore, but also on various other consuming species of the product.

 Amount of dissolved oxygen available. Oxygen is an essential requirement for the

dissolution reaction, the rate of reaction being proportional to the available
dissolved oxygen. The required oxygen is provided by atmospheric oxygen
dissolved in water.
 Pulp pH (Alkalinity). Normally the agent works efficiently in the range of 10.5 to
11.14 of pH. That means the Gold Dressing Agent works in an alkaline medium.
 Temperature. Rate of dissolution of gold in cyanide solutions increases with rise
in temperature, becoming maximum at 85 oC.

24
 Particle size .Greater the surface exposed, higher the rate of dissolution. So, even
when the gold is in the form free particles, if the particles are large, the
dissolution rate will be slow.
 Agitation. The Gold Dressing Agent process is also normally carried out in
agitated tanks. The purpose of agitation is to keep the solids in suspension so that
cyanide-gold contact can take place, and to supply oxygen for dissolution.

25
8. 0 EXPERIMENTATION SECTION

This section covers the equipment or tools, the samples as well as procedures which are going to
be used during the experiment.

8.1 The Equipment.

They include a beam balance, simple plastic bags for sample handling sieves; stop watch air
compressor, eight round bottomed flasks, eight funnel, filter papers, beakers bottles for leaching
spatula as well as the analytical balance.

8.2 The Chemicals and Reagents.

The following are some of the reagents used, Water, Sodium Cyanide Gold dressing agent pH
activator caustic soda NaOH, a sample of gold ore.

8.3 The Experimental Set Up

The experiment will be set where the bottle consisting of the slurry with necessary reagents will
be rotating depend on the residence time set.

8.4 The Experimental Procedures.

8.4.1 Leaching Procedures

The gold sample ore will be obtained from the sample storage room at GST laboratory. Then the
obtained ample will be measured and grinded for about 45minutes then the sieving will follow
for about 10minutes. The materials sieved each from each sieve size will be collected and stored
in the plastic bags present. Then the leaching tanks will be used to do the laboratory
experimental. The amount of mass in the coarsest sieve will be introduced into the tank and the
200mls water will be mixed. Then the pH will be raised to 10.5 to 11.15 for gold dressing agent
and for cyanide range will be at 10.5 to 11.5 respectively. After the pH is raised the reagents will
be added (GDA for one tank and Cyanide for the other) then the leaching tanks will be allowed
to rotate for a certain specified time while allowing the oxygen to flow through tanks. After a one
interval specified time the leaching tanks will be removed for filtration process.

26
8.4.2 Filtration Procedures.

The solution from the tank will be allowed to settle for some time and the filtration process to
obtain the filtrate reach of gold will be done. Collecting the concentrate filtered and label each
concentrate in accordance to its ppm used will be done. After obtaining the concentrate filtered
then the amount of gold ppm present will be determined by using the AAS machine found at the
site. The remaining tailings will be collected and stored in their original bags.

The same procedures followed above will also be followed when using the GDA as the other
reagent.

After the experiment is completed the fire assaying of the tailings sample will be done to
determine the gold content left in the tailings. During the experiment different values for the
parameter selected that is residence time, the particle size and the chemical dosage will be varied
as shown in Table 1 where the particle size is kept constant while varying the other parameter.

The basis for ppm is that 1mg/L relates equal to 1ppm

Table 1 A set of a first experiment

Particle size µm Residence time(hours) Chemical dosage(ppm)

200 8 500
200 12 1000
200 16 1500
200 8 1000
200 12 1500
200 16 500
200 8 1500
200 16 1000

27
9. Bibliography
Adams, M. D. (2005). Advances in Gold ORE Processing Volume 5. Westen Australia: Library
of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data.

Aiweishing. (2014). Gold dressing agent product features. Hong Kong China: Qingdao
Awiweished chemical co.Ltd.

Aweishing. (2014). Gold dressing agent product features. Hong Kong China: Qingdao
Awiweished chemical co.Ltd.

co, & Ltd. (2014). Gold dressing agent. HongKong China: Qingdaoaiweisheng chemica.

co, Q. c., & Ltd. (2014). Gold dressin Agent. Hong Kong China: co, Qingdaoaiweisheng
chemical; Ltd.

co.Ltd, Q. A. (2014, march 24). Gold dressing agent. Retrieved August 26, 2014, from
ttp://qdawschem.com/class.asp?id=334&action=Products&ming=Gold%20Dres:
http://search.mail.com/web?origin=smartsearch&q=gold+dressing+agent

de Andrade Lima, L. &. (2005 ). A Lumped Kinetic Model for Gold Ore Cyanidation.
Hydrometallurg. .

Heap leaching - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (2014, october 24). Retrieved january 14,
2015, from http://wiki.biomine.skelleftea.se/wiki/index.php/Dump_leaching:
http://heapleaching.com/2014/08/25/difference-heap-leaching-dump-leaching/

http://carali19890803.en.ec21.com and http://www.qdawschem.com. (2014, March 24).

Retrieved December 17, 2014, from
li19890803.en.ec21.com/offer_detail/Sell_gold_dressing_agent--23526499.html?gubun=S

Ling, P. e. (1996). An Improved Rate Equation for Cyanidation of a Gold Ore. Quarterly:
Canadian Metallurgical Quarterly.

Mark J. Logsdon, K. H. (April 1999). The management of cyanide in Gold extraction. 294 Albert
Streat Suite 506 Ottawa, ontario Canada KIP6EP: International Council on.

Marsden, J. a. (1992). The Chemistry of Gold Extraction. West Sussex, England: Ellis Horwood.

Martin, A. R. (2003). Impeller - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved January 15, 2015,
from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeller: https://www.google.co.tz/search?
q=agitation+impellors&rlz=1C1GKLB_enTZ622TZ622&oq=agitation+impellors&aqs=chrome..
69i57.8201j0j4&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8

28
Owens, S. ( 2014). Gold Cyanidation. Wise Geek.

Resource, B. (2010). Leaching and Adsorption.

Rugano, E. (2010). Application of Hydrometullagy. Dar es Salaam: CME(Chemical and Mining

Engneering department) University of Dar es Salaam.

Sandstrom, A. (2010). Hydrometallurgy. In A. Sandstrom, Leaching methods (pp. 6-4 to 6-13).

Lulea: Department of Chemical and Geosciences.

Srithammavut, W. (2008). MODELING OF GOLD CYANIDATION. Outotec Research Oy

(ORC) in Pori: Lappeenranta University of Technology.

29