Abstract

ARIAS-LAFARGUE, Telvia; FERNANDEZ-COMPTA, David; SANCHEZ-RODRIGUEZ, Yoleidi  and  LASSERRA-PORTUONDO, Aramis. Influence of leaching on gold recovery at the Gold-Barite Mine in Santiago de Cuba. RTQ [online]. 2017, vol.37, n.3, pp.461-476. ISSN 2224-6185.

In Santiago de Cuba, there is the Gold Barite deposit with a process of obtaining gold by leaching with cyanide and then precipitation with zinc powder. The recovery of gold is not the desired one and an evaluation of the leaching process was made, studying the period from December 2014 to March 2015 to determine all variables that could be negatively influencing the gold recovery rate. The results showed that the copper metal is the one that is fundamentally affecting the recovery of the gold during the leaching since there is a remarkable increase in copper concentrations from 100 to 160 g/m³ due to the kinetics of copper dissolution with cyanide And to the copper that is incorporated to the leaching during the recirculation of the irrigation solution. It was also demonstrated that the rest of the variables do not affect recovery. The economic evaluation of the process was carried out in terms of cyanide consumption, showing that there is an over consumption of this reagent feeding the process 1, 39 t of NaCN above the planned as well as unplanned expenses of 8 087, 23 USD for this concept. Due to the non-fulfillment of the % gold recovery during leaching, 120 483, 13 USD per 3,44 kg of gold is not extracted.

Keywords : leaching; recovery of gold.

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