Faculty of pet. & minining eng.

Report :

Extraction of gold

Gold Prospecting & Panning | Gold Mining & Metallurgy

We are going to show you the basic theory and methodology you need to find where gold is present, how to identify it and what alternatives there are for the extraction of gold via panning or other. In short, this site will show you everything you need to know about gold prospecting. Although we'll explain to great extend the "how to" of searching for mineral deposits within ore veins, this guide considers free gold ( Gold Placers of various types ) as the main source of this precious metal. Also learn how to invest in gold via our other detailed guide. Mining extraction and metallurgy of gold has been pursued with great interest since it developed intrinsic value as a result of its economic and physical properties, its decorative appeal and its scarcity. During much time gold has been the most attractive metal on the world, and still to this day is one the ones most fever and many developments and new ideas have appeared as a consequence of its huge value as an economic metal. The gold mining industry has grown considerably, and it appeared to the writer that the present would be a propitious time to bring out some guides in order to understand gold prospecting and gold mining. What has been goal of the site is to make "Prospecting for Gold" a compendium, in especially concrete form, of useful information respecting the processes of winning from the soil and the after- treatment of gold and gold ores, including some original suggestions. Practical information, original and selected, mining jobs are given to mining company directors, mine managers, mill operators, and prospectors. In each part, will be found a large number of useful hints on subjects directly and indirectly connected with the gold mining.

Classifications of gold-bearing materials

According to their mineralogical and historical characteristics the gold- bearing material can be classified as:

Placers. Free milling ores. Oxidized ores. Silver-rich ores. Iron sulphides. Arsenic sulphides. Copper sulphides. Antimony sulphides. Tellurides. Carbonaceous.

Each of these classes of gold bearing materials has especial mineralogical characteristics which affect their processing and are considered in the next sections.

Gold Extraction Methods

Process selection: Process selection is the systematic development of the optimum metal extraction route for a particular ore using the most appropriate technology. For gold the procedure has two goals: Optimize project economics, principally a function of gold recovery throughput rate and processing cost. Develop a process that satisfies all of the project requirements, including environmental considerations. Process selection is an iterative procedure which usually starts as soon as exploration has established the presence of gold mineralization in sufficient grade and tonnage for the orebody to be considered a potentially economic reserve. The effort devoted to process selection is related to the degree of certainly of the grade and reserve estimations and their absolute values, such as attractiveness of the deposit.

The risk associated with the development of gold projects can be minimized planning a good work metallurgical program, and considering aspects that have been considered in the project: capital, profitability, risk and environmental factors

Factors in a process selection: The factors affecting process selection can be grouped into six areas. Geological Mineralogical Metallurgical Environmental Geographical Economic and Political

Gold Minerals

Gold does not react at ambient temperature and pressures and consequently there are very few naturally occurring compounds of the metal. The average concentration of gold in the world is about 0.005 g/t, that is lower than other metals. The low concentration of gold in primary rocks means that upgrading by a factor of 3000-4000 is usually required during ore formation processes to achieve commercial concentrations. This may be possible natural gravity concentration processes or leaching gold with natural fluids from the host rock. Thus, by highly oxidizing, acidic and complexing (chloride) solutions, followed by redeposition in a more concentrate form. Owing to its siderophile properties (weak affinity for oxygen and sulfur, high

affinity for metals) gold tends to concentrate in residual hydrothermal fluids and subsequent metallic or sulphidic phases, rather than silicates, which form at an early stage of magma cooling. Rocks that are high in clays and low in carbonates are the best sources of gold, and reprecipitation occurs when the hydrothermal solutions encounter a reducing environment, such as a region of high carbonate, carbon or reducing sulphide contain.

The predominant occurrence of gold is as native metal, often alloyed with up to 15 % silver. Other gold minerals include alloys with tellurium, selenium bismuth, mercury, copper, iron, rhodium and platinum. Therefore gold occurs in a mineral form different to most other elements.

Methods of Gold Explorations & Gold Prospection

Methods: The majority of large placer deposits are in South America, Africa or Asia. When one operates in a foreign, remote area, it is essential to use reliable methods, local labor, and tested equipment. Photogeology, at the initial stage, offers a 2D (surface) definition of the area and its geology. Seismic adds a 3rd dimension to lead the sampling program. It provides cross-sections of alluvial terraces with little error. The sampling in strategically selected areas gives tests on economic reliability of the deposit. Things like Photogeology, Seismic surveys, Sampling

Gold Units

Parts Per Million (PPM): A unit of concentration often used when measuring levels of pollutants in air, water, body fluids, etc. One ppm is 1 part in 1,000,000. The common unit mg/liter is equal to ppm. Four drops of ink in a 55-gallon barrel of water would produce an "ink concentration" of 1 ppm.

Parts Per Billion (PPB): One part per billion is 1 part in 1,000,000,000. One drop of ink in one of the largest tanker trucks used to haul gasoline would represent 1 ppb.

The difference between 1 ppm and 1 ppb is important. A prestigious scientific journal recently reported the concentration of a substance as 0.5-1.5 ppm. The real value was 0.5-1.5 ppb. The difference between $1 and $1000! UNITS PPM = mg/L, mg/Kg, ug/mL, uL/L PPB = ug/L, ug/Kg 1 ppb = 0.001 ppm 1 ppm = 1000 ppb 20000 ug/L = 20 mg/L 0.002 mg/Kg = 2 ug/Kg PPM = Parts Per Million PPB = Parts Per Billion Milligrams per Liter = mg/L Milligrams per Killogram = mg/Kg Micrograms per Liter = ug/L Micrograms per Killigram = ug/Kg Micrograms per Milliliter = ug/uL Microliters per Liter = uL/L Parts Per Trillion (PPT): A unit of concentration used to measure vanishingly small levels of pollutants or contaminants in, for example, body fluids. One ppt is 1 part in 1,000,000,000,000. One drop of ink distributed through the water contained in a total of 4 of the 3-million-gallon reservoirs pictured would result in a final concentration of 1 ppt. The remarkable advances in the sensitivity of modern analytical techniques make it possible to detect some substances at the ppt level whose presence would not have been detected using earlier assay methods. Parts Per Quadrillion (PPQ): One ppq is 1 part in 1,000,000,000,000,000 or 1 in 1015. Even the most modern analytical techniques cannot measure a pollutant such as dioxin in this range. However, mathematical models based on the tiny amounts of dioxin still

produced during the manufacture of paper suggest that dioxin is being released in the ppq range by paper mills in the state of Maine (U.S.) Using another mathematical model, the concept of collective dose, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that these undetectable levels of dioxin in river water downstream of one mill will kill, or prevent from hatching, as many as six baby bald eagles over the next five years. UNITS PPM = mg/L, mg/Kg, ug/mL, uL/L PPB = ug/L, ug/Kg 1 ppb = 0.001 ppm 1 ppm = 1000 ppb 20000 ug/L = 20 mg/L 0.002 mg/Kg = 2 ug/Kg

Process Flowsheets of Gold Plants

DIFFERENT WAYS OF DOING GOLD CONCENTRATION

Gold Smelting and Refining

Gold concentrates: The options for treating gold concentrates are in direct relation with its gold contain, thus gravimetric concentrates have been treated by amalgamation following by retorting of the amalgam and smelting of the product. This is usually still the most efficient option, but considering the health hazard of mercury, several alternatives must be considered.

High grade concentrates, typically more than 300-500 g/t can be directly smelted, provided that the material does no contain minerals that could adversely affect smelting, e.g. sulphides.

Sometimes flotation can be used to up grade concentrates for direct smelting, but this is rarely applied. The effectiveness of the process depends on the nature of the material and the degree of gold liberation. Smelting is an option for treating gold flotation concentrates, however the lowest grade that can be considered for smelting is more than 300 g/t, depending on the content of other metal values (copper, silver, platinum group metals), the concentrations of penalty elements and shipping distance Fig. 6.1 Smelting of Dore Bullion

Concentration of Gold
Concentration: Concentration or pre-concentration as it is often called because of its position ahead of cyanidation in many gold extraction flowsheets, can be use to upgrade ores to: Produce a high grade gold concentrate in a small weight fraction of the feed for more economical subsequent treatment. Reject a portion of the ore that contains no gold to reduce the bulk of feed to subsequent processes.

Reject a portion of the ore that is barren but which otherwise adversely affect subsequent gold extraction, e.g. cyanide consumption sulphides, gold absorbing carbonaceous matter and acid consuming carbonates. The economic incentive for concentration is that the cost saving achieve by treating a smaller amount of material, or by removing deleterious material, is greater than the loss of valuable mineral in the rejected portion. The upgraded fraction is then treated further by various processes, depending on the grade, quantity, mineralogy and metallurgical properties. Ore sorting is the rejection of a barren portion of ore or the acceptance of a gold rich portion for further treatment. This can be achieved by manual sorting based on the visual appearance of the material, or with mechanized ore sorting equipment, that rely on bulk ore properties such as optical appearance or radioactivity. Ore sorting has been applied with considerable success to the Witwatersrand pebble-quartz conglomerate ores in South Africa.

Pyrometallurgy of Gold
Gold melts at 1063 oC and boils at 3081 oC under atmospheric pressure; 1800 in a vacuum. The melting and boiling point for other metals and minerals are listed in the next table. Element Gold Silver Platinum Mercury Zinc Lead Copper SiO2 Melting Point (oC) 1063 961 1769 -38.9 420 327 1083 1723 Boiling Point (oC) 2808 2210 4530 357 907 1744 2595 2230

Fe2O3 FeS2 Al2O3

1565 1171 2072

2980

At temperatures above the melting point, gold volatilizes as a red coloured vapour, with the rate of volatilization increasing with increasing temperature. For example, the volatilization rate at 3000 oC is sufficient to completely remove a gold film on porcelain within minutes. Even though the volatility of pure gold is negligible below approximately 1050 oC, and is low below 1250 oC. The volatility increases with the presence of impurity metals, particularly Tellurium, e.g. an alloy containing 5% Tellurium loses between 2 and 4% of the contained gold in one hour at 1245 oC. Alloys containing 5% Hg lose approximately 0.2% of the gold under similar conditions. Gold does not oxidize in air or oxygen, even at red heat, but does has the ability to absorb gases; for example H2, CO, CO2 and N2 can be absorbed up to concentrations of 0.48%, 0.29%. 0.16% and 0.20% respectively. Gold chloride is formed when gold is heated above approximately 140 oC in the presence of chlorine gas. This compound has a dark red color. Gold forms alloys with most metals. Those most commonly encountered are mercury, silver, lead, and copper. Gold and mercury form alloys over the complete range of proportions. This characteristic is used in the amalgamation process. Mercury can be separated from gold by distillation, leaving a gold product containing 0.1-1% Hg. A piece of gold rubbed with mercury is immediately penetrated by it and becomes some brittle. The ductility is not always restored when the mercury is removed by distillation, a crystalline structure being often induced, maybe because part of mercury is retained by the gold; a particle of gold wetted by mercury at once loses its color. A solid amalgam is formed, bur it is not readily dissolved in an excess of mercury. The amalgam recovered in mills may be regarded as a collection of little nuggets of gold, coated and partially saturated with mercury. The amalgam sinks to the bottom of the mercury. Coarse particles of gold are not saturated with mercury to their centers, although the outside layers of particles consist of a saturated solution.

The saturation of the interior, depending on the diffusion of mercury through the solid amalgam, would probably not be complete for many days. The finer particles of gold, the more nearly the interior approaches to saturation. It follows that coarse gold give rich amalgam and fine gold poor amalgam. The limits are pure gold on the one hand and a saturated solution of mercury in gold on the other, neither of which exist in practice. The practical limits are amalgams containing about 50% and 25% of gold respectively. These gold amalgams usually contain impurities in the shape of amalgams of silver and of base metals, as well as non metallic substances. Gold and silver form alloys in all the proportions. Alloys containing more than 66% Ag can be separated by acid parting. Alloys with less silver must be inquarted with additional silver to increase the silver content to allow parting. The alloys are homogeneous, malleable, soft and ductile. They are nearly uniform in composition, but here is a slight tendency for gold to concentrate in the interior of the ingot, the greatest divergence occurring in the alloy containing 36.1% Au. The color of gold is sensibly diminished by the addition of very small quantities of silver and on increasing the proportion of the latter, the color changes to greenish-yellow (20-40% Ag) to a faint yellowish-white (50% Ag) and to white with a scarcely perceptible yellow tinge (60% Ag). The yellow color finally disappears when some proportion between 60-70% Ag is present. Gold and lead readily form a wide range of alloy compositions. Lead has a high affinity for gold and can be used as a collector for gold in pyrometallurgical processes. The lead can be subsequently separated by volatilization. Gold and copper are miscible in all proportions when molten and form solid alloys of sensible uniform composition. Copper can be separate from gold by fusion with lead, by electrolysis, or by smelting to produce a copper matte. Copper imparts a red color to Au-Cu alloys, property that is used in the jeweler industry.

Gold Retorting
Materials that contains significant concentrations of mercury (more than 0.1%) must be treated for its removal prior to smelting gold bullion. This practice may be necessary to minimize the release of toxic mercury vapor into the atmosphere, in the case of

amalgamation may be used to recover mercury. Materials with lower mercury concentrate may be smelt directly as long as adequate ventilation and fume collection facilities are provided. The mercury content varies depending on the original mercury content of the ore and the recovery method used. For example pressed amalgams resulting from amalgamation processes typically contain 30-70% Hg.

Owing to its relatively high vapor pressure compared with other metals mercury can be separated efficiently from other precious and base metals by a simple distillation procedure. Mercury removal is performed in retorts specifically designed for the distillation of mercury, hence the term retorting. The boiling point of mercury is 357 oC and typically temperatures of 600-700 oC are applied to vaporize the contained mercury.

The retort temperature is ramped up gradually to enable the material to dry completely before mercury is vaporized and to allow time for diffusion of mercury to the solid surface. The system is held at maximum temperature for 2-3 hours to ensure completely evaporation. Mercury removal efficiencies in excess of 99% are commonly achieved. Retorts are operated under a slightly negative pressure and mercury vapor is usually exhausted into a water condensation system. The vapor is cooled rapidly to below the boiling point and the liquid mercury is collected under water to avoid re-evaporation. The mercury produce has small quantities of gold, silver and other metals but is usually of sufficient purity to be reused for amalgamation. Mercury losses vary between 0.20.4% for each distillation cycle. These losses are mainly result of uncondensed fumes leaving the condensation system and mercury vapor that permeates into the refinery during retort loading/unloading processes. Retorting of mercury amalgams yields a mercury free product in the form of sponge gold which can be treated directly by smelting for the removal of residual base metal impurities. Mercury is highly toxic and has cumulative physiological effect. This factor, coupled with its high vapor pressure can create problems in refineries treating materials with high mercury content. These effects can be counteracted effectively by good ventilation, routine mercury monitoring, good hygiene procedures, and efficient operation of retorting systems.

Fig. 6.2 Scheme of retorting

Gold Roasting & Smelting

Roasting is used to convert base metals, such as zinc, iron, lead and copper, to their respective oxides so that they can be easily removed into a slag during subsequent smelting process. Any minor amount of sulphides in the roasted material is also oxidized.

Oxidation is most effectively performed in the range 600-700 oC to enable conversion to the oxide within practical time scales, typically 12-18 hours, although temperatures well in excess of 700 oC have been used in practice to reduce roasting time. Above 600 oC most metals of importance have negative free energy of formation values, implying that the oxide should be formed under these conditions.

Slow roasting conditions are generally more efficient for converting these metals to their oxides; the reaction is usually limited by the mass transport of oxygen to the metal

surfaces and an adequate flow of oxygen, as air, must be provided to all regions of the material. Thin layers of material (40-80 mm thick) in roaster-calciner trays should be used and care should be taken not to pack the material. Smelting: The purpose of smelting is to remove base metals and other impurities from high grade concentrates to produce a gold-silver bullion containing typically more than 95% precious metals. The smelted product, called dore bullion, is suitable for direct sale and or further refining. Smelting with fluxes: The smelting process is achieved by heating the material in the presence of slagforming fluxes at temperatures en excess of the melting point of all the components of the charge, typically between 1200-1400 oC. This maximum temperature is maintained for approximately 1.5 hours to ensure complete separation of impurities into the slag. The molten gold and silver form an alloy that is heavier than the slag and sinks to the bottom of the smelting vessel. The efficiency of separation depends on the quality of the slag that is formed, measured in terms of gold grades in the slag and the recovery of base metals and other impurities to the slag. The performance depends on the nature of the gold-bearing materials smelted and the properties of the fluxes used. Silica usually forms the basis for the flux as it has the capability of dissolving most metals oxides. The metal oxides break up the silica lattice and are incorporated into the modified structure. Silica has a high melting point (1723 oC) and tends to form a highly viscous slag which may entrain precious metals. The addition of sodium and boron oxides (sodium borate or borax) reduces both the melting point and viscosity. For example a 1:1 molar ratio of sodium borate and silica has a melting point of approximately 800 oC, which forms a much less viscous, but still strongly acid slag. The reaction of sodium borate with metal oxides is analogous to silica. Consequently, silica-sodium borate mixtures are commonly used as fluxes.

Gold Refining
The Miller process is one of the most used in the gold refining. In this process the charge is melted in the induction furnace. Chlorine gas is introduced into the molten raw gold through a rotating lance in a very precise and controlled way, so that no break through of chlorine gas occurs. By-metals like silver, copper, nickel etc. as well as amphoteric elements like S, Se, Te, As, Bi are removed into the slag as molten chlorides which float on top of the gold melt. Fumes of metal chlorides are removed and filtered (2 stage wet filter or 2 stage dry scrubbing system) that maximizes recovery and cleaning of the exhaust air. The process time is 2 - 4 hours following the input volume and gold content. The gold, containing the platinum group metals, will have a metal content of 99 to 99.5%. The balance is normally only silver and copper. The slag is first manually poured off into a de-golding crucible, which is then slowly cooled to allow any trapped gold to sink to the bottom of the crucible to solidify. The molten chloride is then carefully poured off into separation moulds leaving the gold. The remaining gold particles can be removed manually from the crucible and separation mould when they have cooled. After the slag removal the gold melt is poured through a ceramic filter directly into the granulation equipment or anode moulds. The granulation water is treated in a wash water treatment system before discharge. The gold granules are then moved to the Dissolving reactor for wet chemical refining, the anodes go to electrolysis. The slag from the de-golding process is returned to the slimes smelter The main advantages are summarized in the next table: Short process time - quick refining; Variable design capacities 20 kg to 500 kg - or larger; Ceramic rotating chlorine lance for optimum diffusion minimizes chlorine consumption, metal losses and scrubber neutralization costs; Induction furnaces incorporate high efficiency coil with advanced solid state power supply systems to minimize power consumption - fewer kW required per kilo of metal melted;

Highly efficient non corrosive extraction hood to minimize emissions allows obstruction-free access to crucible-contents - easily dismantled for removal of any condensed chloride residues. Ceramic crucible with special spout for long service life; Computerized control panel to monitor all functions like furnace temperature, flow control of nitrogen/chlorine gas, scrubber functions, exhaust measurement, chlorine leakage detection; including alarm signals; A specially designed in-line 2 stage integrated Prior scrubber is placed next to furnace to provide maximum extraction and gas scrubbing efficiency;

Fig. 6.10 Gas chloride reacting with gold

Gold Leaching

Leaching: All hydrometallurgical gold extraction routes use a leaching step to produce a gold solution as an intermediate product. Currently diluted alkaline cyanide solutions are use exclusively for gold dissolution, although chlorine media has been use in the past. Others lixiviants such as thiourea, thiosulphate, bromide and iodide solutions are also potential alternatives to cyanide leaching, but none has yet been used commercially.

Cyanide leaching can be applied in several forms: agitated leaching, heap or dump leaching, vat leaching, and intensive leaching. Agitated leaching systems are use for the treatment of ground slurries or reclaimed tailings. The product from agitation leaching must either be subjected to one or more stages of solid-liquid separation to allow gold recovery from the solution or may be treated in pulp with carbon or resin for gold recovery. These in pulp processes can be also incorporated into the leaching circuit for treatment of mildly carbonaceous ores and are referred as carbon in leach and resin in leach. Heap or dump leaching can be applied to ores where gold occurs in a form that can be al least partially liberated without grinding. The process is performed on run-of-mine or crushed ore, and is most suitable for treatment of permeable ore types, although agglomeration processes have been developed to improve the performance with less permeable ores. Vat leaching is essentially a flooded heap leach with the solution and the ore contained within a vessel or other suitable impermeable impoundment. Its application is limited to the leaching of unusual materials that no respond well to heap or dump leaching but do not require grinding for gold liberation, for example low grade oxide/free milling ores with most the gold present as coarse particles. This is a rarely used process option because of the generally superior economics of heap and agitated leaching systems.

Intensive cyanidation leaching has been used commercially for the treatment of gravity concentrates containing coarse gold. The leaching kinetics are increased by increasing cyanide and oxygen concentrations and, where necessary, by elevating temperature and pressure. Fig. 4.14 Carbon in Pulp Process.

Leaching Gold with Bromine

Bromine has been used in the first years of the last century and can be considered an option
when there is an auriferous ore difficult to treat by usual methods. Bromine can be added in several forms. One possibility is to add a bromide salt with chlorine or hypochlorine which converted bromide to bromine. The latter leaches gold as well as platinum at any pH and this is really advantageous. Other possibility is to employ bromocyanide. By using bromine there some advantages such as easy extraction, and adaptability to several pH values. There disadvantages such as high consumption, interference with assays by atomic absorption. Au + 2Br- + Br2 = AuBr4- + e Years ago, bromocyanide was used at the Decloro Mine, Ontario (Canada) on mispickel ore. The process consisted of grinding exceedingly fine, and then agitation with cyanide solution to which bromide of cyanogen was added to intervals. During the treatment protective alkalinity is kept at the lowest possible point due to the instability of the reagent, lime sufficient for settlement being added after the treatment is finished. The quantities of free cyanide and bromocyanide are varied according to the assay value of the ore; any additional bromocyanide needed being added at intervals of several hours. KCN + Br2 = KBr + BrCN BrCN + 2KOH = KBr + KCNO + H2O BrCN + 3KCN + 2Au = 2KAu(CN)2 + KBr The quantity of BrCN may be determined in a cyanide solution by acidifying with hydrochloric acid, adding excess of iodide and titrating with thiosulphate. BrCN is decomposed by alkali, then is very important observe the free alkalinity. Once finalized the process, can be added enough amount of lime for settling.

Other option to be considered in this leaching type is to employ chlorine to generate bromine from its salts. The free bromine is converted to bromide ions by reaction with native gold as well as by other reactions with gangue species.

Gold Leaching with THIOSULPHATE

The oxidation of gold in the presence of thiosulphate ions can be expected to produce the gold complex Au(S2O3)23-, but because thiosulphate does not work in acid solutions, alkaline solutions must be used. Few oxidants are suitable for use in alkaline solutions. Although oxygen is an effective reagent for cyanidation, it is not electrochemically active at the required potential for thiosulphate leaching. The reaction is; 4Au + 8S2O32- + O2 + 2H2O = 4Au(S2O3)23- + 4OHThe rate of dissolution is dependent on thiosulphate and dissolved oxygen concentrations and temperature. Leaching rate is improved by copper in ammonium solution.
4Cu(S2O3)23- + 16NH3 + O2 + 2H2O = 4Cu(NH3)42+ + 8S2O32- + 4OH-

4Au + 4S2O32- + Cu(NH3)42+ = 4Au(S2O3)23- + 4NH3 + Cu(S2O3)23Silver chloride and silver sulphide are easily leached. The thiosulphate compounds are consumed by several oxidations and association reactions. 5S2O32- + S2O62- + 3H2O = 4S4O62- + 6OHThiosulphate can be stabilized by the addition of small amounts of sulphite ions which react with sulphide sulphur and regenerate thiosulphate. This prevents the precipitation of silver as the insoluble sulphide. In the anodic area gold is oxidized and complexed with ammonia. This complex can be replaced by a more stable gold thiosulphate complex. In the cathodic are, the cupric amine complex is reduced and the oxygen present in the ammonia solution oxidizes the cuprous complex to a cupric compound. Ammonia and copper are recycled in the system.

It has been reported that the thiosulphate consumption is very high such as 29 kg/t, but it can be reduced by adding reducing agents as chelates which can dive a consumption of 13 kg/t. obviously, there are certain factors that influence thiosulphate consumption. Some of these factors are: sulphide minerals present in the ore react with thiosulphate; oxidant compounds trends to consume more thiosulphate, solid percentage. Thiosulphate does not present a good stability when is exposed to the presence of ultraviolet light, to the presence of heavy metals, or if exist a big amount of cations in the water. Gold recoveries by leaching can be higher than 90%, but as was mentioned with a high consumption of thiosulphate. The pH can be in the range 10.0 to 10.5 and the pulp density can be in the range 40 to 45% solids. Pregnant solutions obtained with thiosulphate dont give a good recovery with activated carbon or resins. The best results have obtained by cementation with zinc, copper or iron.