Gold Mine Flotation Process Flow
Flotation method is a widely used beneficiation method in gold ore beneficiation plants, commonly used to treat highly floatable sulfide minerals containing gold ore. Gold is flotation into copper and lead concentrates, and then gold is extracted from these concentrates. Therefore, it is a more economical and reasonable process flow for gold ore containing non-ferrous metals in the original ore. It can achieve comprehensive utilization of multiple metals and enrich gold as much as possible into sulfide minerals.
Gold Mine Flotation Process Flow
- 1. Ore preparation: Crush and grind the raw ore to an appropriate particle size for the flotation agent to interact with the mineral surface.
- 2. Adding reagents: Adding flotation agents, including collectors, foaming agents, and adjusters, to the slurry can enhance the adhesion ability of specific minerals to bubbles.
- 3. Flotation: By stirring and inflating, bubbles in the slurry come into contact with mineral particles, and valuable mineral particles attach to the bubbles and float to the surface of the slurry.
- 4. Solid liquid separation: The flotation slurry is solid-liquid separated to separate flotation concentrates containing gold and other valuable metals.
- 5. Concentrate processing: Further processing of flotation concentrate, such as concentration and drying, to obtain the final product.
Combination of flotation and other processes
- Flotation concentrate cyanide leaching:This gold ore beneficiation method is commonly used to treat gold deposits containing gold quartz veins and gold pyrite quartz veins. Generally, yellow medicine is used as a collector, pine alcohol oil is used as a foaming agent, and weakly alkaline slurry is used to flotation gold concentrate in a flotation machine. Then the flotation concentrate is subjected to cyanide leaching, where the gold is dissolved by cyanide and the complex enters the solution. The gold mud is then replaced with zinc powder to obtain pure gold. Finally, the gold mud is pyrometallurgical refined to obtain pure gold.
- Flotation concentrate thiourea leaching:For vein gold ores with high arsenic and sulfur content or high carbon and mud content, flotation can be used to obtain gold sulfide concentrate, and then the flotation concentrate is leached with thiourea to recover gold.Thiourea method for gold extraction is a new and increasingly sophisticated low toxicity gold extraction process. Thiourea acidic solution has a high dissolution rate of gold and silver, low toxicity, and is easy to regenerate. Antimony, arsenic, copper, sulfur and other mineral components are not sensitive to thiourea for gold extraction, but can affect cyanide extraction of gold. Therefore, thiourea leaching can extract gold and silver from gold bearing mineral ores that are difficult to process by cyanide method. Meanwhile, the leaching time of thiourea for gold is generally much shorter than that of cyanide leaching.
- Flotation concentrate roasting high acid washing cyanide leaching:For flotation concentrates with high arsenic and sulfur content, after flotation, impurities such as sulfur, iron, and arsenic are enriched in the cyanide tailings to become difficult to select high sulfur and high arsenic concentrates. When cyanide leaching is not possible, the flotation gold concentrate can be first oxidized and roasted to remove arsenic and sulfur. This way, the roasted sand structure is loose, which is more conducive to the leaching of gold and silver. Subsequently, high acid pretreatment was used for washing, and most of the impurities were dissolved by acid. After washing, they were removed, ensuring the cyanide leaching rate and effectively enriching the grade of gold.
Gold ore resources are extremely precious, and in order to select ores more reasonably, the gold ore beneficiation process is crucial. To select gold from gold ore in a more economical and environmentally friendly way, it is necessary to first conduct beneficiation tests, comprehensively analyze the properties of the ore, and obtain a scientific beneficiation test report to determine which gold ore beneficiation process to use. After considering the actual situation of the gold ore beneficiation plant, investment and other factors, the beneficiation plan should be determined to achieve the ideal investment return rate.
Typical beneficiation plant
Shandong Dayin Gezhuang Gold Mine Dressing Plant: This mine is a low sulfur gold ore, with the main metal minerals being pyrite and silver gold. Silver gold is mostly produced in the form of fissure gold, and natural gold is mainly composed of interstitial gold and encapsulated gold; Adopting a full flotation process, the concentrate grade is around 55g/t.
