Resin In Pulp Pilot Plant Testing Of Arrowhead Ore PDF Download

The results of small-scale resin-in-pulp pilot-plant investigations at Grootvlei Proprietary Mines Ltd, President Brand Gold Mining Co, Ltd, and Western Areas Gold Mine Co, Ltd are reported. At each mine,a pulp was fed simultaneously to a carbon-in-pulp plant, allowing a direct comparison of the metallurgical performance of the two processes. With the Grootvlei pulp, gold was extracted more efficiently by resin than by carbon owing to the low concentration of competing base-metal cyanide complexes in solution. With the Western Areas pulp, the reverse was true because of the the high concentrations of copper and nickel in solution. Finally, with the President Brand pulp, resin-in-pulp was significantly superior to carbon-in-pulp owing mainly to the inherently slow rate of gold extraction from calcine by activated carbon. Results are presented that show the efficiency of the elution of gold and other elements with a variety of reagents from the loaded resins arising from these three campaigns. At Western Areas, a detailed investigation enabled a preliminary cost evaluation to be made of three techniques for the elution of strong-base resins.