Oxidation-free thiourea leaching of gold uthig sulphur dioxide

\nThe paper summarizes research on gold recovery by the Carbon in Leach (CIL) process using thiourea by feeding sulphur dioxide by a hydroacoustic emitter. It was found that the use of such a device favors the formation of the radical OH*. The latter is the strongest oxidizing agent. One of the main regulated parameters of the plant is the pressure of pulp supply to the inlet device, which was studied. According to the results of the study, it was found that a high degree of gold recovery is achieved under the following conditions: initial concentration of H2SO4 – 0.5%, thiourea loading – 1.5 kg/t, coal loading 10 g/kg, sulphur dioxide feed –0.13 kg/t*min, ratio L:S – 1:3, slurry supply pressure to the inlet – 1.5 atm, CIL process time – 60 min. Thiourea consumption amounted to 0.57 kg/t, and sulphur dioxide – 8 kg/t. Gold recovery reached 93.5%.\n