Abstract
While extracting gold and silver from telluride-type gold deposits, it is beneficial to develop a comprehensive recovery technology for tellurium. In this paper, we report process mineralogy based on the backward processing technology and the low comprehensive utilization rate of typical telluride-type gold deposits in Xiaoqinling, China. The findings show that tellurium, gold, and silver are the most valuable elements in the ore fissures and gangue minerals and are encapsulated in metallic sulfur ore in the form of altaite, hessite, calaverite, antamokite and natural gold. The flotation method was innovatively applied in this study to comprehensively recover Te, Au and Ag. The results show that when the ore particle size was −0.074 mm (70%), the flotation pulp density was 33%, the pulp pH was 8, and the combined collector (isoamyl xanthate + ethyl thio- carbamate (1:1)) was 120 g/t, in the process involving one rough flotation step, two cleaning flotations and two scavenging flotations as well as a continuous 8 d industrial test, the recovery degree was stable and the average grades of Te, Au, and Ag were 241.61, 90.30, and 92.74 g/t with 95.42%, 97.28%, and 94.65% recovery rates, respectively; thus, excellent recovery degrees were obtained. Compared with the original flotation process, the recovery rates of Te, Au, and Ag were increased by 19.91%, 6.93%, and 5.67%, which boosted the effective enrichment of all valuable elements in the telluride-type gold mine and achieved technological progress.
Highlights
Rare elements have received increasing attention in recent years as they play important roles in modern high-tech industries and national defense [1,2,3,4]
A mineralogical study showed the following: (1) there were 11 ore minerals in the sample, five of which are Au, Ag, and Te minerals, namely natural gold, antamokite, calaverite, hessite, and altaite, which are major target minerals; (2) the other metal sulfide minerals were pyrite, chalcopyrite, bornite, galena, blende, and pyrrhotite; (3) Au, Ag, and Te mainly exist in ore fissures and gangue minerals and are encapsulated in pyrite and other metal sulfide minerals; (4) hessite and altaite are closely related to galena and natural gold is closely related to quartz
There were five kinds of Au, Ag, and Te minerals in the original ore: natural gold, antamokite, calaverite, hessite and altaite, which exist in ore fissures and gangue minerals and are encapsulated in metal sulfide minerals; the size of the Au, Ag, and Te minerals was small the particle size of the natural gold, calaverite and hessite are below 0.038 mm
Summary
Rare elements have received increasing attention in recent years as they play important roles in modern high-tech industries and national defense [1,2,3,4]. Tellurium is mainly extracted from tellurium-rich copper and lead smelting slag [6,7,8,9] These processes are complex and time-consuming, and result in great losses of tellurium during the recovery process. There are a large number of telluride-type gold deposits in Xiaoqinling, China, which content of tellurium is relatively high [10,11]. To recover this kind of ore, the direct recovery of tellurium from ore by flotation can both reduce the loss of tellurium and improve the utilization rate of ore, which is of great significance. Among the 19 known types of industrial gold minerals, tellurium-bearing gold minerals account for 11 of them [12]
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