EXTRACTIVE METALLURGY OF GOLD

8. Environment

Fathi Habashi
Laval University, Quebec City, Canada
Fathi.Habashi@arul.ulaval.ca

 Pollutionproblems in the gold industry

arise from the following sources:
• When gold is associated with sulfide
minerals such as pyrite and arsenopyrite
• When amalgamation and cyanidation
processes are used for gold recovery

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 The treatment of sulfide ores and
cyanidation process are well understood
and can be well managed.
 Amalgamation process has been
abandoned long ago because of the
toxicity of mercury but still used illegally in
some tropical countries.

 Tailings from beneficiation of sulfide ores represent an

important disposal problem for the following reasons:

 The presence of pyrite which undergoes aqueous oxidation

when exposed to weathering conditions generating sulfuric
acid:
FeS2 + H2O + 7/2O2 → FeSO4 + H2SO4
 The acid generated will solubilize other minerals thus
releasing metal ions in solution.

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 The presence of traces of flotation reagents such as
xanthates, thiocarbamates, dithiophosphates, and organic
arsenic compounds.
 Although the concentration of the collectors in the slurry is
in the parts per million range, but because of their toxic
nature they must be handled with care.
 Terrains, hundreds of hectares, must be prepared to stock
pile this material either dry or under water.
 Precautions must be taken to avoid breakage of the dams,
leaks, seepage to underground water, etc. Plantation of
mining waste and tailings dumps is becoming common to
improve the landscape.

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 Treatment of Sulfide Ores

• When roasting is used for treating sulfides and arsenic

minerals to liberate the gold particles then SO2 and arsenic
oxide must be captured and treated further.
• If the exit gases are rich in SO2 that are suitable for H2SO4
manufacture, then the existence of a nearby market for either
the liquid SO2 or the acid must be available.
• Disposal of SO2 can be achieved by absorption by CaO or
CaCO3 to form CaSO4:
SO2 + 1/2O2 + CaO → CaSO4
SO2 + 1/2O2 + CaCO3 → CaSO4 + CO2

• The difficulty with this suggestion is the requirement

and handling of large tonnage of solids; about three
tons of limestone have to be brought in and over four
tons of waste CaSO4 have to be discarded for the
elimination of one ton of sulfur.
• Another technology used today is treating these ores
in aqueous solution with oxygen at high temperature
and pressure in autoclaves to oxidize the sulfide
minerals, liberate the gold, render arsenic as a
harmless ferric arsenate in the residue, and precipitate
the sulfates as gypsum.

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 Amalgamation

• Gold ores were usually treated by the

amalgamation process to recover the large gold
particles.
• The process is hazardous because of the toxicity
of mercury. Handling of mercury requires strict
man-agement to avoid its spilling and disposal in
streams, or emitting its vapour to the
atmosphere during the separation of gold from
the amalgam by distillation.
• It has been completely eliminated except in the
Amazon region and other tropical countries
where it is still used illegally.

Cyanidation

• Sodium and potassium cyanides have been

used for over a century to recover gold and
silver from their ores.
• Cyanide solutions are highly toxic. Alkalinity
in cyanide leach solutions should be carefully
maintained to avoid the liberation of HCN into
the surroundings by atmospheric CO2:
2CN– + CO2 + H2O → 2HCN + CO32–

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 Bleed solution
• It is common practice in cyanide mills to
dispose of a part of the cyanide from time to
time to prevent the accumulation of impurities
which may interfere with the leaching step.
• This bleed solution should never be thrown
into the streams without prior treatment
because of its extreme toxicity.

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 Disposal of bleed solution
• Oxidation of CN– to CNO– ion which is harmless
using chlorine, hydrogen peroxide, ozone, or other
oxidizing agents:
• CN– + Cl2 + 2OH– → CNO– + 2Cl– + H2O
• Excess of chlorine oxidizes the cyanate ion further to
CO2 and nitrogen:
2CNO– + 3Cl2 + 4OH– → 2CO2 + N2 + 6Cl– + 2H2O
• Acidification to liberate HCN which is then absorbed
back in alkali to form alkali cyanide for recycle:
CN– + H+ → HCN
HCN + OH– → CN– + H2O

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• Any copper and iron present in solution as
cyanides precipitate as copper ferrocyanide.
Remaining metal ions in the acid solution can
then be precipitated by Ca(OH)2 and disposed
of safely.