Gold is a transition metal with an atomic number of 79. It is yellow, dense, soft and malleable.
Applications
Increased gold prices have renewed global interest in gold mining. Gold alloys are used in various applications, including jewelry, dental fillings and electronics. Gold is used to recover valuable materials from old electronics, helping save resources and reduce pollution from e-waste.
Challenges
Many unexploited gold reserves are associated with increasingly complex orebodies. These can be preg-robbing, refractory, contain high concentrations of copper, or all the above.
Solutions
Ion exchange resins can economically recover gold from various complex ores and in various solution matrices and process designs.
Gold Recovery
Gold leaching is solubilizing gold to obtain a gold-rich pregnant liquor. The most common method of leaching gold is via cyanidation. Cyanide forms a strong anionic complex with gold, referred to as aurocyanide. Special gold-selective resins extract the gold from the solution, producing a high-purity, concentrated gold-rich liquor suitable for downstream processing, such as producing gold metal via electrowinning. In the case of Resin-in-Pulp applications, resins with special characteristics are required, including large particle size and superior mechanical strength.
The choice of resin is dependent on the matrix.
Purolite Purogold™ MTA1930 is a strong base resin that extracts gold with acidic thiourea, and
Purogold MTA9920 is a mixed base resin that extracts gold with a NaCN/NaOH mixture, similarly, to activated carbon.
Purogold MTA5015SO4 is a specialized ion exchange resin that excels in gold recovery from complex ores, including preg-robbing and refractory ores. Its high selectivity for gold ensures higher loadings and improved purity of the recovered bullion compared to activated carbon. Additionally, it is effective in recovering gold from recycled electronics, helping to preserve valuable resources and reduce the environmental impact of e-waste disposal.
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Gold Recovery.
