Archives of Acoustics, 49, 3, pp. 419–428, 2024
10.24425/aoa.2024.148801

Effects of Ultrasonic Power and Intensity of Mechanical Agitation on Pretreatment of a Gold-Bearing Arsenopyrite

Won Chol HONG
Faculty of Mining Engineering Kim Chaek University of Technology
Korea, Democratic People's Republic of

Ye Yong KIM
Faculty of Mining Engineering Kim Chaek University of Technology
Korea, Democratic People's Republic of

Chang Dok KWON
Faculty of Mining Engineering Kim Chaek University of Technology
Korea, Democratic People's Republic of

Kwang Chol SO
Faculty of Mining Engineering Kim Chaek University of Technology
Korea, Democratic People's Republic of

In this paper, the effects of an ultrasonic power and the intensity of mechanical agitation for pulp on alkaline pretreatment of gold-bearing arsenopyrite were investigated. The effect of pulp temperature on leaching efficiency in alkaline pretreatment of arsenopyrite was investigated under ultrasound and non-ultrasound conditions. Pre-treatment was followed by gold leaching tests with a cyanide solution. Compared with the nonultrasound condition at the temperature of 60 °C, arsenic extraction and gold extraction was increased 20 %, 14.4 %, respectively, in the presence of ultrasound at ambient temperature. The characteristics of the ultrasonic power level as a function of the intensity of mechanical agitation were evaluated by a numerical simulation with CFD software – Ansys Fluent. The simulation results demonstrated that the stronger intensity of mechanical agitation, the lower ultrasonic power level. These results were proved through leaching experiments at different rotation speeds of impeller and ultrasonic powers.

The study results demonstrate that the ultrasound is an effective factor for pretreatment of gold bearing arsenopyrite and gold extraction is related to an ultrasonic power and the intensity of mechanical agitation.
Keywords: gold; arsenopyrite; alkaline pretreatment; ultrasound; computational fluid dynamics (CFD); Ansys Fluent
Full Text: PDF
Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International CC BY 4.0.

References

Ansys Fluent (2016), User’s guide manual fluent Inc., Ansys Fluent 16.0, Pittsburgh, USA.

Awe S., Sandström Å. (2010), Selective leaching of arsenic and antimony from a tetrahedrite rich complex sulphide concentrate using alkaline sulphide solution, Minerals Engineering, 23(15): 1227–1236, doi: 10.1016/j.mineng.2010.08.018.

Bese A.V. (2007), Effect of ultrasound on the dissolution of copper from copper converter slag by acid leaching, Ultrasonics Sonochemistry, 14(6): 790–796, doi: 10.1016/j.ultsonch.2007.01.007.

Bhakta P., Langhans J., Lei K. (1989), Alkaline oxidative leaching of gold-bearing arsenopyrite ores, Report of Investigations 9258, Bureau of Mines, United States Department of the Interior, p. 1–11.

Chryssoulis S.L., McMullen J. (2005), Mineralogical investigation of gold ores, Developments in Mineral Processing, 15: 21–71, doi: 10.1016/S0167-4528(05)15002-9.

Contamine F., Faid F., Wilhelm A.M., Berlan J., Delmas H. (1994), Chemical reactions under ultrasound: discrimination of chemical and physical effects, Chemical Engineering Science, 49(24, Part 2): 5865–5873, doi: 10.1016/0009-2509(94)00297-5.

Corkhill C.L., Vaughan D.J. (2009), Arsenopyrite oxidation – A review, Applied Geochemistry, 24(12): 2342–2361, doi: 10.1016/j.apgeochem.2009.09.008.

Dang X., Ke W., Tang C., Lv J., Zhou X., Liu C. (2016), Increasing leaching rate of gold cyanide of two-stage calcination generated from refractory ore containing arsenopyrite and pyrrhotite, Rare Metals, 35(10): 804–810, doi: 10.1007/s12598-015-0470-0.

Deng S., Gu G. (2018), An electrochemical impedance spectroscopy study of arsenopyrite oxidation in the presence of Sulfobacillus thermosulfidooxidans, Electrochimica Acta, 287: 106–114, doi: 10.1016/j.electacta.2018.08.051.

Hashemzadehfini M., Ficeriová J., Abkhoshk E., Shahraki B. (2011), Effect of mechanical activation on thiosulphate leaching of gold from complex sulfide concentrate, Transactions of Nonferrous Metals Society of China, 21(12): 2744–2751, doi: 10.1016/S1003-6326(11)61118-7.

Kojima Y., Asakura Y., Sugiyama G., Koda S. (2010), The effects of ultrasonic flow and mechanical flow on the sonochemical efficiency in a rectangular sonochemical reactor, Ultrasonics Sonochemistry, 17(6): 978–984, doi: 10.1016/j.ultsonch.2009.11.020.

La Brooy S.R., Linge H.G., Walker G.S. (1994), Review of gold extraction from ores, Minerals Engineering, 7(10): 1213–1241, doi: 10.1016/0892-6875(94)90114-7.

Meng Y., Wu M., Su S., Wang L. (2003), Intensified alkaline leaching pretreatment of refractory gold concentrate at common temperature and pressure [in Chinese], Transactions of Nonferrous Metals Society of China, 13(2): 426–430.

Merouani S., Hamdaoui O., Rezgui Y., Guemini M. (2014), Energy analysis during ultrasonic bubble oscillations: Relationship between bubble energy and sonochemical parameters, Ultrasonics, 54(1): 227–232, doi: 10.1016/j.ultras.2013.04.014.

Mesa Espitia S.L., Lapidus G.T. (2015), Pretreatment of a refractory arsenopyritic gold ore using hydroxyl ion, Hydrometallurgy, 153: 106–113, doi: 10.1016/j.hydromet.2015.02.013.

Mikhlin Y.L., Romanchenko A.S., Asanov I.P. (2006), Oxidation of arsenopyrite and deposition of gold on the oxidized surfaces: A scanning probe microscopy, tunneling spectroscopy and XPS study, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 70(19): 4874–4888, doi: 10.1016/j.gca.2006.07.021.

Müller S., Fischper M., Mottyll S., Skoda R., Hussong J. (2014), Analysis of the cavitating flow induced by an ultrasonic horn – Experimental investigation on the influence of actuation phase, amplitude and geometrical boundary conditions, EPJ Web of Conferences, 67: 02079, doi: 10.1051/epjconf/20146702079.

Nan X., Cai X., Kong J. (2014), Pretreatment process on refractory gold ores with As, ISIJ International, 54(3): 543–547, doi: 10.2355/isijinternational.54.543.

Penn R., Yeager E., Hovorka F. (1959), The effect of ultrasonic waves on the dissolution of Nickel, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 31: 1372–1376.

Sajjadi B., Raman A.A.A., Ibrahim S. (2015), A comparative fluid flow characterisation in a low frequency/high power sonoreactor and mechanical stirred vessel, Ultrasonics Sonochemistry, 27: 359–373, doi: 10.1016/j.ultsonch.2015.04.034.

Slaczka A.St. (1986), Effect of ultrasound on ammonium leaching of zinc from galmei ore, Ultrasonics, 24(1): 53–55, doi: 10.1016/0041-624X(86)90075-2.

Taylan N., Gürbüz H., Bulutcu A.N. (2007), Effects of ultrasound on the reaction step of boric acid production process from colemanite, Ultrasonics Sonochemistry, 14(5): 633–638, doi: 10.1016/j.ultsonch.2006.11.001.

Tekin T. (2002), Use of ultrasound in the dissolution kinetics of phosphate rock in HCl, Hydrometallurgy, 64(3): 187–192, doi: 10.1016/S0304-386X(02)00040-3.

Wang S., Cui W., Zhang G., Zhang L., Peng J. (2017), Ultra fast ultrasound-assisted decopperization from copper anode slime, Ultrasonics Sonochemistry, 36: 20–26, doi: 10.1016/j.ultsonch.2016.11.013.

Zhang G., Wang S., Zhang L., Peng J. (2016), Ultrasound-intensified leaching of gold from a refractory ore, ISIJ International, 56(4): 714–718, doi: 10.2355/isijinternational.ISIJINT-2015-476.

Zhu P., Zhang X., Li K., Qian G., Zhou M. (2012), Kinetics of leaching refractory gold ores by ultrasonic-assisted electro-chlorination, International Journal of Minerals, Metallurgy, and Materials, 19(6): 473–477, doi: 10.1007/S12613-012-0582-6.




DOI: 10.24425/aoa.2024.148801