YANG Bo, TONG Xiong, Xie Xian

(1. Faculty of Land & Resource Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650093, China;
2. Yunnan Province Engineering Research Center for Reutilization of Metal Tailings Resources, Kunming 650093, china;
3. State key Laboratory of Complex Nonferrous Metal Resource Clean Utilization, Kunming 650093, China)

Abstract: A gold ore from Gansu Province, China containing Au 4.3 g/t belongs to a refractory gold ores. Processing flowsheet of gravity, flotation and cyaniding were used in industrial scale to study the recovery of gold, but the content of gold is 1.0 g/t in cyanide-leaching residue. In order to investigate the reason for the loss of gold, mineralogical characteristics of flotation tailings were investigated by using polarizing microscope and MLA. Results indicate that flotation tailings contain Au 2.8 g/t, but the disseminated size of gold is very fine. 29.2% of natural gold presents in form of micro-gold and visible gold, 18.8% and 48.2% of gold presents in form of super micro-gold and is enclosed in stibnite, pyrite, arsenopyrite and quartz, dolomite and kaolinite, respectively. The research results appropriately explained the reason for the loss of gold. Based on the results, the method for the recovery of gold from flotation tailings was proposed.

Keywords: flotation tailings; MLA; mineralogical characteristics

E-mail: xiongtong2000@yahoo.com

ACTA MINERALOGICA SINICA Vol. 36, No. 3, 2016, Page 354-358