Characterization of gold ore from Babakan Loa Sub-District and leaching study in cyanide solution

Abstract

Research on the characterization of gold ore from Babakan Loa sub-district and studies of leaching in cyanide solution has been carried out. This research was conducted to determine the characteristics of gold ore from Babakan Loa and the leaching behavior in cyanide solution. The preparations carried out were crushing and grinding to obtain several size fractions. The ore characterization was carried out through XRD, XRF, SEM-EDX, and wet chemical analysis. XRD analysis results show that the main mineral phases are quartz, hematite, goethite, kaolinite, montmorillonite, and berlinite. The main constituents of the ore were Si (60.96%), Fe (10.71%), K (5.47%), and Al (19.53%). The Au content was 7.8 ppm, and the results of SEM-EDX analysis show that the gold grain size is smaller than 10µm. The leaching process showed that the highest percent gold extraction data of 92.7% was obtained in experiments with 1000 ppm sodium cyanide concentration, 10% solids percent, and 104-149µm grain size. Increasing the percentage of solids and the reduction in grain size led to a decrease in the percentage of gold extraction. The clay content was suspected to be the cause of the ineffectiveness of the leaching process in this study.