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DOI

  • Victoria Shields
    Amentum, 303 Bridgewater Place, 1st Floor Birchwood Park Birchwood Warrington WA3 6XF United Kingdom
  • Thomas Robshaw
    Nuclear Engineering Group, School of Chemical and Process Engineering, University of Leeds, Woodhouse, Leeds LS2 9JT, United Kingdom
  • James Amphlett
    Seaborg Technologies, Titangade 11 2200 Copenhagen N Denmark
  • Alan Hides
    RSBruce Metals and Machinery Ltd March Street Sheffield South Yorkshire S9 5DQ
  • Richard Bruce
    RSBruce Metals and Machinery Ltd March Street Sheffield South Yorkshire S9 5DQ
  • Joan Cordiner
    a Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, The University of Sheffield, Mappin Street, Sheffield S1 3JD, U
  • Mark Ogden
Recovery of gold from mining tailings is important economically and environmentally in the mining industry. With a limited amount of mineable gold remaining, the process of recovering gold from mine tailings needs development. This paper will specifically investigate the recovery of gold using ion-exchange resins in a thiosulfate-thiourea lixiviant solution. A range of resins of different functionalities: Purolite® A200 (Type II quaternary ammonium), Lewatit® MonoPlus TP 214 and Puromet® MTS9140 (thiourea), Dowex™ M-4195 (bis-picolylamine) and Lewatit® VPOC 1026 (di(2-ethylhexyl)phosphate- D2EHPA) were assessed for their gold uptake capabilities via dynamic column experiments. A mixed-metal solution was used to accurately simulate the spent lixiviant from thiosulfate/thiourea leaching of mine tailings. All resins showed selectivity towards gold over the numerous other metals in solution, which was believed to be due to the stability of aqueous gold thiourea complexes. Puromet® MTS9140 had the highest gold capacity, with a calculated uptake capacity of 41.6 mg/L. Modified-Dose Response (MDR), Bohart-Adams and Yoon-Nelson models were used to describe the data; the MDR model being the most successful.

Keywords

  • Precious metals, Surface assets, Resource recovery, Mine tailings, Ion exchange
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)200182
Number of pages10
JournalResources, Conservation & Recycling Advances
Early online date21 Sept 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Nov 2023
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