Articles - Chemical Science & Engineering Research

Abstract

A number of metallurgical techniques have been adopted for the recovery of gold from eluate solution in the mining industry, such as electrowinning and zinc cementation techniques. Electrowinning process is facilitated via the application of current (electricity) to recover gold from eluate. A partial operating cost estimate of electrowinning in gold recovery asserts that 73% of the cost is attributed to electricity used at the electrowinning stage. One of the business improvement approaches towards reducing operating cost is finding ways to cut down electricity cost. This paper assessed the possibility of economically recovering gold from eluate using carbon re-adsorption technique. This process, contrary to the conventional electrowinning, is devoid of stimulators such as direct current (electricity) in respect of recovering gold from eluate. After using fresh carbon to re-adsorb gold from the eluate, ashing the loaded carbon, and smelting the ash, the partial operating cost for recovering gold was estimated to be $10,580, with fresh carbon cost accounting for more than 50%. The cost of using electrowinning technique was, however, $3,260. The estimated net revenues from the sales of gold using the carbon re-adsorption and electrowinning techniques were $1,711,527 and $1,638,951 respectively, with the difference stemming from corresponding purities of 92.9 % and 88.59% respectively. A total of $ 72,576 weekly increase in revenue, about 4.24% profit margin was realised from the carbon re-adsorption process. This paper shows promising results, which sets the platform for further investigation into decreasing the cost of re-adsorption by using less expensive carbon-base materials.