gold processing

Introduction

 preparation of the ore for use in various products.

      For thousands of years the word gold has connoted something of beauty or value. These images are derived from two properties of gold, its colour and its chemical stability. The colour of gold is due to the electronic structure of the gold atom, which absorbs electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths less than 5600 angstroms but reflects wavelengths greater than 5600 angstroms—the wavelength of yellow light. Gold's chemical stability is based on the relative instability of the compounds that it forms with oxygen and water—a characteristic that allows gold to be refined from less noble metals by oxidizing the other metals and then separating them from the molten gold as a dross. However, gold is readily dissolved in a number of solvents, including oxidizing solutions of hydrochloric acid and dilute solutions of sodium cyanide. Gold readily dissolves in these solvents because of the formation of complex ions that are very stable.

      Gold (Au) melts at a temperature of 1,064° C (1,947° F). Its relatively high density (19.3 grams per cubic centimetre) has made it amenable to recovery by placer mining and gravity concentration techniques. With a face-centred cubic crystal structure, it is characterized by a softness or malleability that lends itself to being shaped into intricate structures without sophisticated metalworking equipment. This in turn has led to its application, from earliest times, to the fabrication of jewelry and decorative items.

History

      The history of gold extends back at least 6,000 years, the earliest identifiable, realistically dated finds having been made in Egypt (Egypt, ancient) and Mesopotamia (art and architecture, Mesopotamian) c. 4000 BC. The earliest major find was located on the Bulgarian shores of the Black Sea near the present city of Varna. By 3000 BC gold rings were used as a method of payment. Until the time of Christ, Egypt remained the centre of gold production. Gold was, however, also found in India, Ireland, Gaul, and the Iberian Peninsula. With the exception of coinage, virtually all uses of the metal were decorative—e.g., for weapons, goblets, jewelry, and statuary.

      Egyptian wall reliefs from 2300 BC show gold in various stages of refining and mechanical working. During these ancient times, gold was mined from alluvial placers—that is, particles of elemental gold found in river sands. The gold was concentrated by washing away the lighter river sands with water, leaving behind the dense gold particles, which could then be further concentrated by melting. By 2000 BC the process of purifying gold-silver alloys with salt to remove the silver was developed. The mining of alluvial deposits and, later, lode or vein deposits required crushing prior to gold extraction, and this consumed immense amounts of manpower. By AD 100, up to 40,000 slaves were employed in gold mining in Spain. The advent of Christianity somewhat tempered the demand for gold until about the 10th century. The technique of amalgamation, alloying with mercury to improve the recovery of gold, was discovered at about this time.

      The colonization of South and Central America that began during the 16th century resulted in the mining and refining of gold in the New World before its transferal to Europe; however, the American mines were a greater source of silver than gold. During the early to mid-18th century, large gold deposits were discovered in Brazil and on the eastern slopes of the Ural Mountains in Russia. Major alluvial deposits were found in Siberia in 1840, and gold was discovered in California in 1848. The largest gold find in history is in the Witwatersrand of South Africa. Discovered in 1886, it produced 25 percent of the world's gold by 1899 and 40 percent by 1985. The discovery of the Witwatersrand deposit coincided with the discovery of the cyanidation process, which made it possible to recover gold values that had escaped both gravity concentration and amalgamation. With E.B. Miller's process of refining impure gold with chlorine gas (patented in Britain in 1867) and Emil Wohlwill's electrorefining process (introduced in Hamburg, Ger., in 1878), it became possible routinely to achieve higher purities than had been allowed by fire refining.

Ores

      The major ores of gold contain gold in its native form and are both exogenetic (formed at the Earth's surface) and endogenetic (formed within the Earth). The best-known of the exogenetic ores is alluvial gold. Alluvial gold refers to gold found in riverbeds, streambeds, and floodplains. It is invariably elemental gold and usually made up of very fine particles. Alluvial gold deposits are formed through the weathering actions of wind, rain, and temperature change on rocks containing gold. They were the type most commonly mined in antiquity. Exogenetic gold can also exist as oxidized ore bodies that have formed under a process called secondary enrichment, in which other metallic elements and sulfides are gradually leached away, leaving behind gold and insoluble oxide minerals as surface deposits.

      Endogenetic gold ores include vein and lode deposits of elemental gold in quartzite or mixtures of quartzite and various iron sulfide minerals, particularly pyrite (FeS₂) and pyrrhotite (Fe_1-xS). When present in sulfide ore bodies, the gold, although still elemental in form, is so finely disseminated that concentration by methods such as those applied to alluvial gold is impossible.

      Native gold is the most common mineral of gold, accounting for about 80 percent of the metal in the Earth's crust. It occasionally is found as nuggets as large as 12 millimetres (0.5 inch) in diameter, and on rare occasions nuggets of native gold weighing up to 50 kilograms are found—the largest having weighed 92 kilograms. Native gold invariably contains about 0.1 to 4 percent silver. electrum is a gold-silver alloy containing 20 to 45 percent silver. It varies from pale yellow to silver white in colour and is usually associated with silver sulfide mineral deposits.

      Gold also forms minerals with the element tellurium; the most common of these are calaverite (AuTe₂) and sylvanite (AuAgTe₄). Other minerals of gold are sufficiently rare as to have little economic significance.

      Of the world's known mineral reserves of gold ore, 50 percent is found in South Africa, and most of the rest is divided among Russia, Canada, Australia, Brazil, and the United States. The largest single gold ore body in the world is in the Witwatersrand of South Africa.

Mining and concentrating

 The nature of the ore deposit determines the mining and mineral processing techniques applied. Oxide ore deposits are frequently of such low grade (e.g., 3 to 10 parts per million) that extensive mineral processing cannot economically be justified. In this case they are merely shattered by explosives and then piled into heaps for extraction by cyanidation (see below). These heaps can be hundreds of metres long and 15 to 30 metres in height.

      Alluvial deposits are either dredged from pond and river bottoms or sluiced from banks and floodplains with high-pressure hydraulic hoses. Alluvial deposits require little or no comminution; they are usually concentrated by gravity techniques such as jigging or tabling, in which a slurry is passed through jigs or over grooved or ridged tables that retain the denser gold particles while allowing the much less dense sand and gravel to pass over.

 Endogenetic deposits frequently contain elemental gold that is highly disseminated within a base metal sulfide mineral. These deposits are mined, crushed and ground, and then concentrated first by gravity separation to recover coarse particles of native gold before being subjected to froth flotation to concentrate the sulfide mineral fraction that contains the gold.

Extraction and refining

Amalgamation

      Elemental gold (and silver as well) is soluble in mercury, so that, when particles of the metal are brought into contact with a fresh mercury surface, they are wetted and dissolved, forming an alloy called amalgam. This phenomenon is exploited for the recovery and concentration of fine particulate gold or silver.

      Amalgamation is accomplished by passing a slurry of ore over copper plates coated with mercury, by mixing a slurry of ore and mercury in a cylindrical or conical vessel called an amalgam barrel, or by grinding the ore in a ball, rod, or pebble mill to free the gold from the mineral matrix and then adding mercury to the mill and continuing grinding until the gold has dissolved in the mercury. The denser amalgam is then separated from the now barren ore in the mill discharge. After filtration and washing to remove impurities, the amalgam is heated in a sealed retort to distill off the mercury, which is recovered for reuse.

      Although amalgamation is still practiced extensively in gold recovery, the very real hazards of mercury poisoning of either the operators or the environment have limited its application and compelled the use of carefully designed equipment to ensure against contamination.

Cyanidation (cyanide process)

      More gold is recovered by cyanidation than by any other process. In cyanidation, metallic gold is oxidized and dissolved in an alkaline cyanide solution. The oxidant employed is atmospheric oxygen, which, in the presence of an aqueous solution of sodium cyanide, causes the dissolution of gold and the formation of sodium cyanoaurite and sodium hydroxide, according to the so-called Elsner reaction:

      When gold dissolution is complete, the gold-bearing solution is separated from the solids.

      With ores of higher gold content (i.e., greater than 20 grams of gold per ton of ore), cyanidation is accomplished by vat leaching, which involves holding a slurry of ore and solvent for several hours in large tanks equipped with agitators. For extracting gold from low-grade ores, heap leaching is practiced. The huge heaps described above are sprayed with a dilute solution of sodium cyanide, and this percolates down through the piled ore, dissolving the gold.

      Immense amounts of solution and solids are associated with a vat leaching circuit, owing to the very low concentrations of gold in the ores. In order to eliminate the huge capital costs associated with the purchase and installation of solids/liquids separation equipment, techniques have been developed that circumvent the entire separation process. One of these is the addition of granular activated carbon to the ore slurry during or upon completion of gold solubilization. The dissolved gold is readily adsorbed onto the carbon, thus removing it from solution, and the granular carbon is separated from the now barren ore by running the slurry through a screen. Gold is then leached from the carbon particles by a strong solution of sodium cyanide and sodium hydroxide, and it is recovered from solution by electrowinning directly onto steel wool or by the Merrill-Crowe process. In the latter process, the gold-bearing solution is deoxygenated and passed through a filter-press, where the gold is displaced from solution by reduction with zinc metal powder.

Extraction from refractory ores

      Many gold-bearing ores and concentrates are not readily amenable to cyanidation, owing to the presence of substances that consume the cyanide reagent before it can dissolve the gold, preferentially adsorb the gold as it dissolves (a phenomenon called preg-robbing), or completely surround the gold particles in such a way as to prevent access by the cyanide leach solution. Such ores are referred to as refractory, and they frequently contain the sulfide minerals pyrite, pyrrhotite, or arsenopyrite. Gold can be freed from these ores or concentrates by treating them with various oxidizing processes. The most common method is to roast gold-bearing minerals at temperatures of 450° to 750° C (840° to 1,380° F) to destroy the interfering sulfides. Oxidation can also be accomplished by the use of high-pressure reactors called autoclaves (autoclave), in which the minerals in an aqueous slurry are treated at high temperature and pressure with oxygen-bearing gases. After oxidation is complete, cyanidation, as described above, is employed to solubilize and extract the gold.

      A large proportion of gold is recovered from refractory ores, and considerable skill is required in the design and operation of such facilities.

Refining

      Gold extracted by amalgamation or cyanidation contains a variety of impurities, including zinc, copper, silver, and iron. Two methods are commonly employed for purification: the Miller process and the Wohlwill process. The Miller process is based on the fact that virtually all the impurities present in gold combine with gaseous chlorine more readily than gold does at temperatures equal to or greater than the melting point of gold. The impure gold is therefore melted and gaseous chlorine is blown into the resulting liquid. The impurities form chloride compounds that separate into a layer on the surface of the molten gold.

      The Miller process is rapid and simple, but it produces gold of only about 99.5 percent purity. The Wohlwill process increases purity to about 99.99 percent by electrolysis. In this process, a casting of impure gold is lowered into an electrolyte solution of hydrochloric acid and gold chloride. Under the influence of an electric current, the casting functions as a positively charged electrode, or anode. The anode dissolves, and the impurities either pass into solution or report to the bottom of the electrorefining tank as an insoluble slime. The gold migrates under the influence of the electric field to a negatively charged electrode called the cathode, where it is restored to a highly pure metallic state.

      Although the Wohlwill process produces gold of high purity, it requires the producer to keep on hand a substantial inventory of gold (mainly for the electrolyte), and this is very costly. Processes based on direct chemical purification and recovery from solution as elemental gold can greatly speed gold processing and virtually eliminate expensive in-process inventories.

Refining from scrap (scrap metal)

      The processing of gold scrap varies not only with the gold content but also with the amenability of the gold in the scrap to extraction. Thus, the bulk of the gold may be recovered by leaching techniques using cyanidation or aqueous chlorination, and the residue may then be treated by smelting to recover the balance. Generally, scrap with a gold content of less than 0.1 percent, unless readily recoverable by leaching, is recycled back to a pyrometallurgical process. Metallic scrap gold from jewelry production is frequently melted on-site and reused.

assaying

      Fire assay is considered the most reliable method for accurately determining the content of gold, silver, and platinum-group metals (except osmium and ruthenium) in ores or concentrates. This process involves melting a gold-bearing sample in a clay crucible with a mixture of fluxes (flux) (such as silica and borax), lead oxide (called litharge), and a reducing agent (frequently flour). The fluxes lower the melting point of the oxidic materials, allowing them to fuse, and the molten litharge is reduced by the flour to extremely fine drops of lead dispersed throughout the charge. The drops of lead dissolve the gold, silver, and platinum-group metals, then coalesce and gradually descend through the sample to form a metallic layer at the bottom of the crucible. After cooling, the lead “button” is separated from the slag layer and heated under oxidizing conditions to oxidize and eliminate the lead. The shiny metallic bead that is left contains the precious metals. The bead is boiled in nitric acid to dissolve the silver (a process called parting), and the gold residue is weighed. If platinum metals are present, they will alter the appearance of the bead, and their concentration can sometimes be determined by use of an arc spectrograph.

      In the jewelry industry, gold content is specified by karat. Pure gold is designated 24 karats; therefore, each karat is equal to 4.167 percent gold content, so that, for example, 18 karats equals 18 × 4.167, or 75 percent gold. “Fineness” refers to parts per thousand of gold in an alloy; e.g., three-nines fine would correspond to gold of 99.9 percent purity.

The metal and its alloys

      Pure gold has virtually no industrial uses other than as a backing for currency. In reality, no country backs its currency with an equivalent amount of gold, but to some extent the solvency of a country is equated with its gold reserves.

      Jewelry represents the single largest use of gold. Because of the metal's softness, it is alloyed with other metals to provide the requisite hardness and strength. Typical jewelry alloys include gold-silver, gold-copper, and gold-silver-copper. Most gold jewelry varies between 14 and 18 karats. Gold also finds extensive use in the casting of dental bridges and crowns. Here it is usually alloyed with silver and copper, although platinum or palladium are sometimes added to increase strength.

      Because of its combination of high electrical conductivity and high corrosion resistance, gold is used in the plating of electronic contacts and transistor bases and in gold-based solders of extremely high reliability for semiconductor silicon chips. Owing to its chemical stability, gold has virtually no applications as a catalyst. However, it is sometimes used as a substrate for platinum catalysts employed in the production of nitric acid.

Chemical compounds

      Chemical compounds of gold include potassium dicyanoaurate, K[Au(CN)₂], used in gold electroplating baths, and chloroauric acid, HAuCl₄, used as an intermediate in the production of other gold compounds and occasionally for colouring ceramics. Gold salts are also used as anti-inflammatory drugs in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.

James Edward Hoffmann

Additional Reading

Comprehensive and up-to-date information on many aspects of metallurgy, individual metals, and alloys can be found in convenient reference-form arrangement in the following works: Metals Handbook, 9th ed., 17 vol. (1978–89), a massive and detailed source prepared under the direction of the American Society for Metals, with a 10th edition that began publication in 1990; Herman F. Mark et al. (eds.), Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology, 3rd ed., 31 vol. (1978–84), formerly known as Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology, with a 4th edition begun in 1991; and its European counterpart, the first English-language edition of a monumental German work, Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry, 5th, completely rev. ed., edited by Wolfgang Gerhartz et al. (1985– ). Ed. Relevant volumes of Joseph William Mellor, A Comprehensive Treatise on Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry, 16 vol. (1922–37, reprinted 1960–65), are an excellent source of descriptive chemistry and historical information on the precious metals. Information on the chemistry of the precious metals is scattered throughout the monumental Gmelins Handbuch der anorganischen chemie, 8th ed. (1924– ), with articles in German and English; since 1981 most of the articles have appeared in English, and the volumes now have English titles: Gmelin Handbook of Inorganic Chemistry (1981–89) and Gmelin Handbook of Inorganic and Organometallic Chemistry (1990– ). Linda S. Benner et al. (eds.), Precious Metals Science and Technology, trans. from Japanese (1991), is a comprehensive reference. F.E. Beamish, J.C. Van Loon, and Clyde L. Lewis, Analysis of Noble Metals: Overview and Selected Methods (1977); and F.E. Beamish, The Analytical Chemistry of the Noble Metals (1966), are useful texts for information on specific methods for the analysis of precious metals as found in a variety of rock matrices. Despite their ages, Ernest A. Smith, The Sampling and Assay of the Precious Metals, 2nd ed., rev. (1947, reprinted 1987); and Edward E. Bugbee, A Textbook of Fire Assaying, 3rd ed. (1940, reissued 1981), are an excellent place to begin the study and practice of fire assaying, which has changed very little since its beginning in antiquity. Although much of the equipment described is outdated, the work by Thomas Kirke Rose and W.A.C. Newman, The Metallurgy of Gold, 7th ed., rev. (1937, reissued 1986), still contains a wealth of useful information about gold mining, extraction, refining, and chemistry. R.S. Salter, D.M. Wyslouzil, and G.W. McDonald (eds.), Proceedings of the International Symposium of Gold Metallurgy (1987), provides some information on contemporary research and current gold-recovery operations; it will appeal more to the reader “skilled in the art” than the casual reader. In the same vein, F.W. McQuiston, Jr., and R.S. Shoemaker, Gold and Silver Cyanidation Plant Practice, 2 vol. (1975–81), provides a wealth of information for the commercial operator, including actual flowsheets and operating data from a variety of gold and silver operations around the world. James Edward Hoffmann

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