The Link Between Gravity Recovery and Hydrometallurgy: The Case of Gold

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Hydrometallurgy 2003 – Fifth International Conference in Honor of Professor Ian Ritchie –

Volume 1: Leaching and Solution Purification


Edited by C.A. Young, A.M. Alfantazi, C.G. Anderson, D.B. Dreisinger, B. Harris and A. James
TMS (The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society), 2003

THE LINK BETWEEN GRAVITY RECOVERY AND


HYDROMETALLURGY: THE CASE OF GOLD

A.R. Laplante1 and W. Staunton2


1
Department of Mining, Metals and Materials Engineering
McGill University, 3610 University St., Montréal, QC, Canada H3A 2B2
2
The A.J. Parker Cooperative Research Centre for Hydrometallurgy,
Division of Science, Minerals Science, Murdoch University
Murdoch, WA, Australia 6150

Abstract

Recent developments in gold metallurgy are used to illustrate how the interface between gravity
recovery and hydrometallurgy has evolved in recent years. Of particular interest is the use of
gravity recovery to produce high-grade concentrates that can be subjected to intensive
cyanidation. It is expected that a growing proportion of gold production, possibly close to 50%
in certain countries, will follow this route. Other examples of the interaction between gravity
recovery and cyanidation are also provided. Implications for new and renewed research
directions are discussed.

Introduction

At first, the link between gravity recovery and hydrometallurgy appears as incongruous as the
genetic crossing of a dinosaur and a mammal. Hydrometallurgy has been hailed as the future of
extractive metallurgy, whereas many consider gravity technology the most primitive of mineral
processing techniques. Yet, economic imperatives are driving, particularly for gold metallurgy,
a growing interaction between gravity and leaching, as will be discussed herein not as a
classical “research” paper, but rather as a “state-of-the practice” report that reviews how gold
gravity practice has evolved, particularly in the past twenty five years, to adopt intensive
cyanidation and direct electrowinning as preferred unit processes. Root causes are examined,
as well as the applied research needs that will arise from what must be considered a significant
shift in gold recovery practice (albeit one that uses well established technologies).

Gold is probably the oldest of metals actively sought by man, despite its relative uselessness,
other than for trading and adorning purposes. This can be attributed to how easily gold can be
identified and recovered (by gravity), and how little transformation native gold requires before
it can be “marketed.” Historically, the first hydrometallurgical gold process was amalgamation,
which is still used today particularly in developing nations. In the translation of Agricola by
Hoover and Hoover in1950 [1], it is reported that gold amalgamation was known to the
Romans. Aqua regia extraction, which is still used extensively in assaying, is also used by
artisan miners to recover gold from very high-grade concentrates. Table I shows that both
processes are environmentally very hazardous and economically questionable, which is why
they have been abandoned by practically all industrial producers. Whereas acidic digestion can
only be used with very high-grade feeds and yields dissolved gold, mercury can be used to
process large tonnages and gold recovery from amalgams is simple technically. Amalgamation
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has been and still is therefore the dominant choice. As a result, mercury poisoning, which can
take place at metallic Hg concentrations as low as 5 µg/L, remains a serious problem because of
extensive use in many emerging nations [2]. Aqua regia is still used extensively today for
digesting aliquots and parting silver from doré beads, but the health risks associated with
amalgamation are such that laboratory use is progressively discontinued, being very
advantageously replaced by gravity methods and automated image analysis of microscopic
fields, such as QEM.SEM and MLA [3].

Table I. Artisan Uses of Hydrometallurgy for Gold Recovery

Amalgamation Aqua Regia


Health and Metallic and methyl mercury Dissolution of base metals
Environmental poisoning of the central Production and release of acidic
system effluents
General toxicity to aquatic
and terrestrial organisms
Economic and Poor gold recoveries High reagent consumptions
technical Dissolved gold must be recovered
selectively

Cyanidation and Gravity: The Early Years

Excellent historical reviews of cyanidation abound [4]. Of particular interest here is the
interaction between gravity recovery and cyanidation. Despite the high efficiency of the latter,
it did not at first completely replace gravity recovery even in the most modern processing
facilities, largely because of limitations inherent to the cyanidation process and the technology
then available (e.g. aurocyanide recovery).

As cyanidation technology matured (e.g. the advent of the Merrill Crowe process) gravity
recovery was still perceived, correctly, as contributing to the overall economics of the process.
Table II outlines the general rationale for the use of gravity ahead of cyanidation. Note that the
main argument, slow cyanidation kinetics of large gold grains, is often overemphasized, given
the ability of most classification units (i.e. hydraulic classifiers) to recycle to the grinding
circuit liberated gold particles of coarse and intermediate size [5]. However, very coarse
grinding products or circuit upsets will direct to cyanidation coarse gold particles that may not
fully cyanide.

Dissolution problems associated with passivation of free gold surfaces are not well studied,
although they are widely reported. Bottle roll tests on tailing samples that have been
composited, dried and re-pulped often give recoveries in the range of 10 to 30%, particularly
when dealing with oxide ores. High clay contents and poor water quality (e.g. dissolved solids
contents above 50,000 ppm) are believed to exacerbate this problem.

It is generally believed that at the beginning of the twentieth century, cyanidation replaced
gravity recovery or a combination of gravity recovery and amalgamation as the main gold
production method. Marsden and House [4] correctly point out that gravity recovery is still
used today in many applications to recover some of the gold from the grinding circuit; in fact
the use of gravity recovery remained strong during the first half of the twentieth century,
despite slow but steady improvements in cyanidation technology. It must also be realized that

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some ores are not amenable to cyanidation and may therefore require gravity recovery to
recover the gold. Until recently, companies chose to exploit cyanidable gold ores in favor of
those separable by gravity recovery, often due to economics.

Table II. Benefits of Gravity Recovery Ahead of Cyanidation

Benefit Comment
Coarse gold that has not enough retention Classification with hydrocyclones
time for cyanidation is recovered early minimizes this benefit
Coarse classification and low retention
times in cyanidation circuits augment it
Gold particles with “passivated” surfaces Phenomenon quite common with oxidized
that cyanide slowly or not at all can be ores
recovered Typically identified when free gold is
found in cyanidation tailings, or when re-
pulped tailings yield a measurable content
of cyanidable gold
Dissolved gold losses are minimized More important with Merrill-Crowe or
when carbon fouling occurs
Less gold settles out in the circuit: the Important advantage which is generally
static gold inventory is minimized poorly documented
Carbon costs decreased Attrition/breakage of carbon minimized
Head grade spikes smoothed out Higher head grade often corresponds to
coarser gold that can easily be recovered by
gravity

Seventies and Eighties: The Technology Explosion

When the American Central Bank decided to let the price of gold float, the demand for gold
resulted in significant increases in its price (in current or constant currencies). Vast
technological effort was then unleashed to improve existing technologies and develop new ones
to address the issue of refractory and low-grade ores. Many of these technologies were thought
incompatible with gravity recovery or developed to recover “invisible” gold that is not
amenable to gravity recovery. Others constituted significant improvements in existing
cyanidation practice, and it was thought that the practice of gold gravity recovery would rapidly
become obsolete. Table III lists some of these developments, whose impact should logically
have been a decrease in the use of gravity recovery. Indeed, during this period, the use of
gravity recovery almost disappeared in South Africa, where there was a perception that gravity
recovery contributed little to overall gold recovery and constituted an unnecessary security risk.
The impression of low contribution to overall recovery might have been partially correct,
especially with the acidic leach – neutralization – cyanidation – pyrite flotation – roasting –
cyanidation flow sheet, but the cost of this flow sheet saw it fall into disfavor. The second
“impression” was eventually dispelled when abandoning gravity did not lower the incidence of
theft. In fact, it can be argued that theft may have increased due to the higher circulating loads
and inventory of gold in grinding circuits lacking gravity recovery.

Elsewhere in the world, and despite the added competition of Table III processes, gravity
recovery held its own, essentially because batch centrifuge concentrators (BCCs), of which the
Knelson Concentrator is the archetype, gained acceptance. These units appealed as simple,
automated devices capable of improved gravity recoveries into small concentrate masses that
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could easily be treated in secured gold rooms. Originally designed for alluvial mining, the
Knelson Concentrator was first used for a hard rock application ahead of flotation in 1982, but
its usefulness ahead of cyanidation was rapidly recognized. Because BCCs can only achieve
low eight recoveries, typically 0.02 to 0.1% of the mill feed, they aim to recover only liberated
gold or gangue particles that contain such a high gold content that it makes the particle
recoverable by gravity even from low-density sulphides such as pyrite. This is what has been
dubbed “gravity recoverable gold” (GRG). Recoveries by gravity of anywhere from 20 to 80%
of the total gold in the ore resulted in overall recovery increases typically in the range of 1 to
3%, as well as a reduction in cyanidation costs. In 1998, approximately 30% of Australian gold
production was derived from gravity circuits. This figure has since significantly increased.

Table III. Technological Developments of 1970-1990 and Relation to Gravity Recovery

Aimed at Non-GRG Makes cyanidation more Thought incompatible with


effective and lessens Gravity Recovery
economic incentive of
gravity recovery
Pressure leaching Activated Carbon Heap leaching
Bacterial leaching (CIP/CIC/CIL) Grinding in cyanide
Better agitator design
Chlorination of preg-
robbers
Improved cyanidation
control
Optimized cyanidation
chemistry (oxygen, lead
nitrate)

The Nineties Until Present: Fighting Low Gold Prices With Better Technology

A number of factors contributed to the continued growth of gravity recovery over the past 15
years. These are listed in Table IV in approximate chronological order. Intensive cyanidation
will likely contribute most to the growth of gold gravity circuits in the next five years.
Ironically, in the “battle of gravity vs. cyanidation”, this hydrometallurgical Trojan horse will
blur the line even more between pure gravity and pure cyanidation. Never have gravity
recovery and hydrometallurgy been so interconnected.

Table IV. Factors Contributing to the Growing Use of Gravity Recovery in 1990-2003

Factor References
Better acceptance of the unit by major gold producers [6] and [7]
Development of higher capacity and new concentrators
A better understanding of gold gravity circuits and the ability to predict [8] and [9]
their performance
Increased throughputs, coarser grinds and decreased residence times in
cyanidation circuits
The commercialization of intensive cyanidation [10], [11] and [12]

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In the mid-seventies, a research program was initiated at AngloAmerican to replace
amalgamation of gravity concentrates with intensive cyanidation [13]. The results of this work
were conclusive, but went largely unnoticed because they coincided with the abandonment of
gravity recovery by South Africans in general, and AngloAmerican (subsequently AngloGold)
in particular. Table V shows how some of the conclusions of the research effort compare to
existing practice.

Table V. Comparison of Proposed Approach of Davidson et al [13] to Existing Practice

Proposed Approach Recent Industrial Practice


Cyanide additions of 20 kg/t concentrate Cyanide additions of 10-30 kg/t
Use of Oxygen as oxidant Oxygen, Leachwell or Leachaid used as
oxidant
Highly agitated vessel, impeller geometry Tumbling reactor (InLine Leach Reactor) or
important fluidized vessel (Acacia Leach Reactor)
Reaction times of around 12 hours Reaction times of 12 to 24 hours
Solution to electrowinning Solution to existing or dedicated
electrowinning cells

The conclusions of the AngloAmerican work were largely correct, with the exception that
intensive agitation is essential. The recipe for effective intensive cyanidation is accurately
described: high concentrations of cyanide and an oxidant (oxygen in this case), and
electrowinning of the pregnant solution. Of particular interest is the potential problem of gold
cementation onto metallic iron, which was clearly encountered, but easily solved, with the use
of oxygen and higher cyanide concentrations. Higher pH or the addition of lime was also found
to alleviate this particular problem.

It is rather odd that the intensive cyanidation route, after having been so clearly identified by
AngloAmerican, should have been neglected for so long, and then resuscitate so spectacularly
over the past three years. The long neglect was probably caused by a number of factors. First,
AngloAmerican (now AngloGold), as with most South African producers, chose to move away
from gravity recovery. It was left to others to develop the process at industrial scales. Second,
the intensive mixing route, which was erroneously deemed essential, led to mechanical and
operational problems in at least one operation where this approach was tested [14]. Third, the
process could not as easily be automated as it can be now, to virtually eliminate the risk of theft.
Fourth, the focus in these years was clearly on primary gravity recovery, with BCCs or jigs.

In the constant effort to optimize gravity recovery, the gold room was eventually identified as
the clear weak link in the gravity flow sheet. Although recoveries from concentrate in the
neighborhood of 90% have been reported, recoveries in the 40 to 70% range are far more
common. Losses generally occur at fine particle size, where primary recovery is most
challenging –i.e. what is first lost in gold rooms is what is most difficult to recover in the
circulating load. Flaky gold can also be difficult to recover. As a result, intensive cyanidation
was revisited, first by Gekko Systems Pty Ltd, with its In-Line Leach Reactor, and then by
AngloGold, with the Acacia Reactor (now commercialized as the Acacia Consep Leach
Reactor). Neither unit uses the intensive agitation suggested by the original Anglo work.
Rather, the In-Line Leach Reactor is essentially an automated giant bottle roll (Figure 1), and
the Acacia Consep Reactor is a “fluidized” reactor (Figure 2). Both units are operated batch,
although the In-Line Leach reactor also offers a continuous mode of operation.

69
Figure 1: Schematic of the Gekko InLine Leach Reactor.

The batch version of both units has been technically very successful, with commissioning
periods of a few days. The continuous In-Line Leach Reactor is a more challenging
application, because of potential problems of short-circuiting and clarification, but
technological solutions to these problems are known, and its ability to treat “large tonnages”
(up to 7 t/h) opens new applications.

Both the InLine Leach Reactor and the Acacia Reactor have reported spectacular increases in
“gravity” (i.e. gravity + intensive cyanidation) and total gold recovery. For example, the first
commercial installation of the ILR at the Kundana Mine resulted in an additional overall
recovery of 1.5%. That of the Acacia Reactor at Porgera lifted overall recovery by 1%. These
are by no means isolated cases, as the domino effect of the first corporate installation shows.
Placer Dome’s first installation of the Acacia reactor was Porgera, which was quickly followed
by one at Western Deep Levels (South Africa), the Dome Mine and Musselwhite (Canada). It
seems that whatever benefit is lost when the classical tabling and smelting route is replaced (i.e.
potential loss of non-cyanidable minerals such as some tellurides and maldonite) is more than
compensated by the vast improvement in gravity recovery.

Intensive cyanidation offers not only the potential to recover free or almost free gold particles,
but also gold that has become attached or possibly has cemented unto tramp iron material.
Figure 3 shows a back-scattered image of a piece of tramp iron (skats) that contains a
significant amount of gold “buttered” on its surface. This material is normally rejected with a
low intensity magnetic separator when tabling. With intensive cyanidation, the high
concentration of cyanide and oxidant prevents cementation of the gold back on iron surface, a
phenomenon that could occur in the main cyanidation circuit.

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Feed

Electrowinning Cell

Reaction
Vessel

Water
Leach
Solution
Discharge Tank
Pump
Electrowinning
Cell Solution
Tank

Figure 2: Schematic of the Acacia Consep Leach Reactor.

Figure 3: Fragment of Tramp Iron (approx. 2 mm in size) Coated With Gold.

100
80
% Recovery

60 Weight
40 Au
20
0
10 100 1000
Particle Size, µm

Figure 4: Kelsey Jig Performance at the Granny Smith Mine.

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Other Interactions of Gravity and Cyanidation
At least two other interactions of gravity with cyanidation are worth mentioning. The first one,
which has been practiced for a number of years in Australia, is the scavenging of gold carriers
(typically pyrite) from the residue of the cyanidation circuit. This product is then finely
reground, typically with a vertimill, to be intensively cyanided. This approach can be very cost
effective when compared to flotation as that it requires no reagents and the cyanided product
can be added back to the head of cyanidation train, i.e., it does not require a dedicated carbon
circuit. Additional savings arise from the coarser grind size for non-sulphide gangue upstream.
Typical flowsheets include desliming with hydrocyclones, rougher concentration with Riechert
Cones followed by cleaning with spirals [15]. For example, at PlacerDome’s Golden Sunlight
Mine in Whitehall, MT, cyanided tails are cleansed with spirals to gravity recover course pyrite.
The pyrite concentrate is finely ground and fed back to the conventional agitation leach circuit.
This has increased gold recovery by 10-20% by taking advantage of fast gold leach kinetics
versus the significantly slower pyrite leach [16]. In a recent development at the Granny Smith
Mine, the Riechert Cones were replaced with centrifugal jigs, to extend gravity recovery into
finer particle size [17]. Figure 4 shows size-by-size recovery achieved by the centrifugal jigs.

The second interaction is, in fact, an extension of the recovery of gravity recoverable gold from
grinding circuits. The use of continuous intensive cyanidation makes it possible to treat more
than what is typically recovery by centrifuge units. Thus gravity recoverable gold carriers can
be recovered from grinding circuits, in a stream that can contain possibly up to 5 to 10% of the
total ore. This product can be continuously cyanided prior to either return to the grinding
circuit or discard. This is particularly appropriate for difficult ores, such as very high preg-
robbers. This approach has been successfully implemented at the Penjom mine in Malaysia.
This type of flowsheet, ultimately, leads to the use of gravity recovery to produce a throw-away
tailing, as in the case at the Round Mountain Mine (Nevada). The gravity concentrate is
reground and cyanided.

Future Research Directions


The renewed interest in the hydrometallurgical treatment of gold gravity concentrates opens up
new areas of applied research. Some are presented in Table VI. Of obvious interest for applied
research are the two commercial systems presently available. Is one better than the other and, if
so, for which applications? How does the use of oxygen compare to that of commercial
oxidants such as LeachWELL© and LeachAid©? Quite importantly, how do minerals that are
difficult to cyanide or will not cyanide, such as tellurides and maldonite, respond to intensive
cyanidation?
The practice of cyaniding the gold carriers intensively is relative new. A supplier of such
system has reported significant increases in overall recovery, but the mechanisms responsible
for this increased recovery (or, for that matter, that associated with GRG recovery) are still
poorly understood. Although protocols now exist to predict how much GRG an ore contains
and how much will be recovered, such a protocol is still emerging for gold-carrier recovery.
More importantly, a protocol to predict the impact of the gravity recovery of GRG or gold
carriers on overall gold recovery has yet to be developed.

Continued pressures for alternatives to cyanidation have yet to yield commercially viable
routes. Because gravity concentrates represent such small masses of very high value, they
could be treated with high reagent concentrations, and may well be the feedstock for such
pioneering applications. Thiosulphate is the obvious lixiviant, and will be tested in the near
future. Realistically, its use would be unlikely if the main recovery circuit is to be cyanide
based, but could be attractive ahead of flotation in jurisdictions where cyanide cannot be used.
72
Table VI. Applied Research Avenues Suggested by Intensive Cyanidation
Topic Future Research Directions
Intensive cyanidation Comparison of the tumbling vs. fluidization routes
of GRG concentrates Choice of oxidant
Cyanidation of non-metallic gold minerals
Intensive cyanidation Study of mechanisms explaining the benefits of intensive cyanidation
of gold carriers of gold carriers
Development of protocols to estimate these benefits at bench scale
Lixiviants other than Use of thiosulphate and other lixiviants (e.g. halide, thiocyanate,
cyanide sulfide, and ammonia systems)
Elements other than Intensive leaching of gravity concentrates of platinum group minerals
gold

A tantalizing new research direction would see the technology developed for gold recovery
transferred to other minerals, in particular platinum group elements. Gravity recovery of
platinum group minerals has also benefited from the development of BCCs [18], but typically
the concentrates are added to the final flotation concentrate. There might be valued added if a
hydrometallurgical route were developed to process these low mass, high-grade products.

Conclusions
The search for optimum flowsheets has led to an increasing interaction between gravity
recovery and cyanidation, and is having a profound effect of gold recovery practices. As is
often the case, industrial practice is ahead of a fundamental understanding of the underlying
mechanisms, thereby opening new research directions. The success of the meshing of gravity
and cyanidation also suggests that a similar approach could be applied to different systems, i.e.
new leachants for gold or leaching of other gravity concentrates. This highlights the need for
continued cooperation between hydrometallurgists and mineral processors.

Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank Mr. Gregg Wardell-Johnson for helpful discussions and editing of
the manuscript. This work was undertaken under the auspices of the A. J. Parker Cooperative
Research Centre for Hydrometallurgy at the Murdoch University. The program is part of
AMIRA Project P420B – Gold Processing Technology (Module 1). The authors are grateful for
the support of sponsors of Module 1 of this project: AngloGold Australia, Placer Dome Pacific,
Barrick Gold/Kahama Mining, Gekko System, Gold Fields, Knelson Concentrators, Newmont
Mining and Sons of Gwalia.

References
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73
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