Technology of Gold-Containing Technogenic Raw Materials Processing Using the Electric Explosion Method

Abstract

The paper shows fundamental possibility of processing of gold-bearing technogenic raw materials using the method of electric explosion. A series of experiments using a laboratory and pilot-production high-voltage pulsed discharge (HVPD) installation for the processes of enrichment of gold-bearing mineral raw materials of Komsomolsk mine tailings in Kemerovo region is conducted with a relatively low energy electrical discharge in the pulse of up to 112.5 Joules and the cost of electric power of about 1.5 kW/ton of raw material, that allows complete destruction of clay components agglomerations to less than 0.045 mm (micron and submicron sizes). Solid minerals such as quartz are simultaneously destroyed by defects in the grains and withdrawn from the installation with water, thus increasing gold degree of the concentrate. The results of particle-size and X-ray structural analyses of gold-bearing mineral raw materials of Komsomolsk mine tailings in Kemerovo region obtained by the method of electric explosion are discussed.