Heap leaching of gold from the destructured oxidized ore of the Belsu deposit, Republic of Kazakhstan

Abstract

Heap leaching technology is increasingly being used to extract metals from poor ores, especially in the gold mining industry and is characterized by low capital costs compared to other methods. The purpose of this work is to develop modes and indicators of heap leaching of gold from the destructured oxidized ore of the Belsu deposit, Kazakhstan. The material composition of the ore has been studied, studies of percolation and pelletizing modes have been carried out. For the first time, studies on heap leaching for oxidized ore of the Belsu deposit (Kazakhstan) were conducted. It has been established that gold is well extracted by heap leaching from ore crushed to -25 mm and -12 mm after preliminary pelletizing. The degree of dissolution of gold from ore with a size of -25 mm and -12 mm has similar values – 74.41% and 76.57%, respectively. The leaching tails contain 0.478 g/t and 0.440 g/t gold. The consumption of sodium cyanide did not exceed 0.47 kg/t. The expected extraction of gold into the Dore alloy will be 66.60-68.53% with an initial gold content of 1.87-1.88 g/t in the ore. According to the developed technology, an industrial plant for heap leaching of gold from oxidized ore of the Belsu deposit was built.