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At present, according to the complexity of ore composition and the difficulty of mineral processing, gold ore can be roughly divided into poor sulfide ore, high sulfide gold ore, polymetallic sulfide gold ore, gold-containing copper ore, telluride gold ore and gold-containing oxide ore. Different types of gold ore have different properties and different methods are used. Next, let's take a look at the ore characteristics of various types of gold ore and their commonly used mineral processing methods.
This type of ore has a relatively simple material composition, mostly quartz vein type or hydrothermal alteration type. Pyrite is the main sulfide but the content is relatively low, occasionally accompanied by copper, lead, zinc, tungsten, aluminum and other minerals, and the gold mineral is mainly natural gold.
Poor sulfide ores can be simply sorted, such as coarse gold is recovered by gravity separation, fine gold is generally recovered by flotation, flotation concentrate is treated by cyanidation, and very fine poor ore is recovered by full mud cyanidation.
This type of ore contains a lot of pyrite and arsenopyrite, and gold is also recovered. The gold grade is low, the natural gold particles are relatively small, and are mostly wrapped in pyrite and arsenopyrite.
Usually, gold and sulfide are first sorted out by flotation, and then the gold concentrate is cyanided to obtain gold products and cyanide tailings containing a large amount of pyrite and arsenopyrite, and then flotation is used to separate pyrite and arsenopyrite.
This type of ore is characterized by a high sulfide content. In addition to gold, the ore also contains copper, lead, zinc, silver, tungsten, antimony and other metal minerals, and the latter often have separate mining and recovery value. The gold particle size varies widely and its distribution in the ore is particularly uneven. In addition to being closely related to pyrite, natural gold is also closely associated with copper, lead, zinc, silver, tungsten, antimony and other minerals. There are many types of metal minerals that need to be comprehensively recovered.
For the selection of this type of gold-bearing ore, it is necessary to first determine its ore type, and then determine the specific beneficiation method based on the differences in its metal minerals and gangue minerals. For example, for gold-bearing copper-iron ore, the main metal minerals are chalcopyrite and magnetite, while natural gold is present in chalcopyrite as fine particles. The flotation-magnetic separation combined beneficiation process can be used for selection, and two products, namely, gold-bearing copper concentrate and iron concentrate, can be obtained respectively.
The difference between this type of ore and the gold-bearing copper sulfide ore in the polymetallic sulfide gold-bearing ore is that the gold grade is lower, but gold is the main comprehensive recovery element. Gold minerals have medium particle size and complex symbiotic relationship with copper minerals. They can be separated by flotation + flotation concentrate pyrometallurgical treatment, that is, first flotation is used to obtain copper-gold concentrate, and then the copper-gold concentrate obtained by flotation is sent to the smelter for smelting, and gold is recovered during the smelting process.
Gold-bearing minerals are still mainly natural gold, but a considerable part of gold is present in gold sulfides. From the perspective of genesis, this type of ore is mostly low-temperature hydrothermal deposits, and the main gangue minerals are quartz, chalcedony quartz and carbonate minerals. This type of gold-bearing ore is often recovered by flotation. Since telluride gold minerals are brittle and easily muddied during the grinding process, it brings difficulties to the flotation of telluride gold minerals. Therefore, when treating telluride gold ore, stage grinding and stage flotation process are often used.
The main metal mineral is limonite, which contains no or little sulfide, but contains stable secondary minerals such as gold-containing iron hydroxide or iron hydrous oxide and some quartz, which is the main feature of the mineral composition of this type of ore. Most of the gold is found in the main gangue minerals and weathered metal oxide cracks. The gold particle size varies greatly, and the mineral composition is relatively simple. The separation methods are mainly gravity separation and cyanidation.
For partially oxidized ores, gravity separation + cyanidation is often used for separation. For all oxidized ores, coarse gold is recovered by gravity separation, ore mud is separated by stirring cyanidation, and ore sand is separated by percolation cyanidation.
Gold resources are very precious. In order to more reasonably separate ores, gold ore separation methods are crucial. If you want to select gold from gold ore more economically and environmentally friendly, you should first analyze the properties of the ore and obtain a scientific beneficiation test report to determine which gold beneficiation method to use. After comprehensively considering the actual situation of the gold beneficiation plant, investment and other factors, you can determine the beneficiation plan to achieve an ideal return on investment.
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