Minerals Engineering 92 (2016) 248–256

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Minerals Engineering
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/mineng

Alkaline sulfide gold leaching kinetics

C.G. Anderson
Kroll Institute for Extractive Metallurgy, George S. Ansell Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 80401, United States

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Recently, leaching of gold with cyanide has come under scrutiny for its possible detrimental effects to the
Received 8 September 2015 environment. Also, in some gold bearing ores and concentrates, conventional cyanide leaching is not the
Revised 15 December 2015 best method for gold extraction. This is due to gold particle encapsulation, cyanicides or pregrobbing car-
Accepted 14 January 2016
bon such as found in refractory ores and concentrates. Hence, there is much interest in developing an
Available online 1 February 2016
alternative way to extract gold from ore. Possible benefits of leaching gold with something other than
cyanide include easier processing of refractory ore bodies including: carbonaceous, cyanicides, and sul-
Keywords:
fides, cheaper reagent and operating costs and opening of mine properties in places where cyanide use
Gold
Leaching
has been limited by the law. Hence, this paper details the fundamentals and development of the
Kinetics Alkaline Sulfide Gold Leaching system.
REQCM Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Sulfide

1. Introduction Brooy et al. (1994) suggests that there are three ways the refrac-
tory ore may interfere with the cyanidation process:
The recovery of gold from ores is a hydrometallurgical process,
with cyanidation being the dominant means of recovering gold for I. Locking of gold in a mineral matrix, preventing leach
over 125 years. The popularity of cyanide can be attributed to the reagents reaching the gold. This is common in sulfide and
simplicity and selectivity of the extraction process. The cyanidation silicate bearing ores.
process relies on the fact that gold dissolves in aerated cyanide II. Reactive minerals in the ore can consume the leach reagents
solutions to produce the gold cyanide complex Au(CN)
2 . The two in side reactions, leaving insufficient cyanide or oxygen for
redox half reactions representing this process are the oxidation leaching to occur. An example of this interference is copper
of gold (Eq. (1)) and the reduction of oxygen (Eq. (2)): bearing ores.
III. Components of the ore, such as carbon, that may absorb or
Au þ 2CN
! AuðCNÞ
2 þ e
ðEo ¼
570 mVÞ ð1Þ precipitate the dissolved gold cyanide complex so that it is
lost from the leach liquor.

O2 þ 2H2 O þ 4e
! 4OH
ðEo ¼ 401 mVÞ ð2Þ Sulfide containing ores interfere with the widely used carbon-
The combination of Eqs. (1) and (2), gives the overall reaction, in-pulp/carbon-in-leach (CIP/CIL) extraction process. The options
known as the Elsner equation, Eq. (3). In this electrochemical pro- for processing refractory sulfidic ores are complex and depend
cess, oxygen is the oxidant, while cyanide acts as the complexing greatly on location and mineralogy. Pre-treatment options for deal-
lixiviant. ing with refractory ores which may require neutralisation before
CIP/CIL cyanidation treatment include chemical treatment, pres-
sure oxidation and biological oxidation treatment. Other options
4Au þ 8CN
þ O2 þ 2H2 O ! 4AuðCNÞ
2 þ 4OH
ð3Þ
are thermal treatment (i.e. roasting) and physical pre-treatment
Recently, there has been increasing environmental and public (i.e. fine grinding). Some refractory ore pre-treatment processes,
concerns over the use of cyanidation. This concern has led to fur- such as partial oxidation of sulfides, produce elemental sulfur
ther research on alternative lixiviants, such as the thiosulfate and which can react with cyanide to produce thiocyanate (Eq. (4)).
halide systems (Chapman et al., 2000).
One of the limitations of the cyanidation process is the uneco- S þ CN
! SCN
ð4Þ
nomic gold recovery from particular ores, termed refractory. La In the partial oxidation of sulfide to sulfur, the majority of the
gold tends to accumulate in the elemental sulfur that is produced,
E-mail address: [email protected] (Anderson, 2001a), making it uneconomical to use cyanidation on

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mineng.2016.01.009
0892-6875/Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 C.G. Anderson / Minerals Engineering 92 (2016) 248–256 249

the pre-treated residue. An alternate method available to leach this The generation of these predominant meta-stable species is
gold is alkaline sulfide lixiviation. Hydrometallurgical methods can illustrated simplistically in the following scenario.
be employed for treatment of gold, arsenic, antimony, tin and mer-
cury containing materials, concentrates and ores as well as com- 4So þ 6NaOH ! 2Na2 S þ Na2 S2 O3 þ 3H2 O ð8Þ
plex ones containing any number of metals. The alkaline sulfide
leaching (i.e. ASL) system is one of these and is essentially a mix- ðX
1ÞSo þ Na2 S ! Na2 SX ðwhere X ¼ 2 to 5Þ ð9Þ
ture of sodium sulfide and sodium hydroxide with other meta-
Due to the oxidizing power of polysulfide on sodium thioarsen-
stable alkaline species as required. This is a unique hydrometallur-
ite, the major species in solution is normally sodium thioarsenate
gical system as it is a very selective lixiviant for the distinct leach-
(Na3AsS4). This can be viewed as follows:
ing of tin, gold, antimony, arsenic, tellurium, silver and mercury
(Glazkov and Tseft, 1961; Gnatyshenko and Polyvyanni, 1961; Na2 SX þ ðX
1ÞNa3 AsS3 ! ðX
1ÞNa3 AsS4 þ Na2 S ð10Þ
Polyvyanni et al., 1963, Nadkarni et al., 1975; Nadkarni and
Kusik, 1988; Anderson, 2001a, 2001b, 2002, 2003a, 2012, 2014, Fundamental information and data in this technology are very
2015; Anderson et al., 2004, 2005, 2014; Anderson and Twidwell, limited or restricted. Due to space constraints in this paper and
2008a, 2008b, 2010. the relative image clarity available for inclusion in this publication,
Worldwide, ASL technology has been employed industrially in the few other available illustrative Pourbaix Eh pH diagrams in the
the former Commonwealth of Independent States, China and the alkaline sulfide system may be found in the referenced literature as
United States for the production of antimony (Anderson et al., noted (Tian-cong, 1988; Anderson, 2003a; Anderson et al., 2005;
1992; Anderson and Krys, 1993; Nordwick and Anderson, 1993; Young and Robins, 2000; Robins, 2000).
Anderson et al., 1994; Anderson, 2000; Holmes, 1944a, 1944b; As shown in Figs. 3 and 4, gold is also soluble and stable in the
Kaloc, 1967). alkaline sulfide system. Gold lixiviation is the result of leaching by
As an example, when the alkaline sulfide hydrometallurgical polysulfide oxidation and complexation by sulfide as shown in Eq.
system is applied to a common arsenic containing material like (11) (Anderson, 2001a, 2003b; Jeffrey and Anderson, 2002;
enargite, Cu3AsS4, which usually contains considerable gold, a sul- Anderson et al., 2004, 2005).
fide complexed species of sodium thioarsenate in solution is

2Au þ 2S2

2 ! 2AuS þ 2S
2

ð11Þ
formed leaving behind and insoluble copper sulfide solid (Conner
and Anderson, 2013; Anderson, 2005; Anderson and Twidwell, Gold leached by the alkaline sulfide system is readily separated
2008b). This is illustrated in Eq. (5): and recovered by several means including electrowinning, gaseous
precipitation, chemical precipitation, cementation, solvent extrac-
2Cu3 AsS4 ðsÞ þ 3Na2 SðaqÞ ! 3Cu2 SðsÞ þ 2Na3 AsS4 ðaqÞ ð5Þ tion and ion exchange. Conventional methods of gold recovery
When applied to arsenic trioxide, As2O3, sodium arsenite is also such as zinc or aluminum cementation are not applicable to this
formed but the oxides generate hydroxide. The reaction is as type of solution because of the dangers associated with stibine or
follows: arsine gas generation. As well, the conventional method of direct
collection of gold by activated carbon does not occur in these solu-
1:5H2 O þ 2Na2 S þ 1=2As2 O3 ! NaAsS2 þ 3NaOH ð6Þ tions as readily as it does for gold cyanide solutions.
A proprietary gold recovery practice (Anderson, 2001a) has
been adopted to quantitatively and selectively recover gold from
NaAsS2 þ Na2 S ! Na3 AsS3 ð7Þ
complex alkaline sulfide solutions containing a mixture of metals
The leached arsenic can then be fixed as a stable compound such as arsenic, tin, mercury and antimony. This is illustrated by
using several known industrial technologies (Robins, 1988; selectively removing gold from an alkaline sulfide leach solution
Twidwell and McCloskey, 2011; Anderson et al., 2014). containing these impurities. The assay of the solution tested is
Dissolution of elemental sulfur in sodium hydroxide is also used shown in Table 1, and the assay of the final products is shown in
as a lixiviant for alkaline sulfide leaching. The combination of Table 2. The overall results are presented in Table 3.
sodium hydroxide and elemental sulfur results in the formation The proprietary substrate solids which have been employed to
of species other than just sulfide (S
2). Both sodium polysulfide load the gold consist of several inexpensive and readily available
(Na2SX) and sodium thiosulfate (Na2S2O3) are created along with materials and direct processing of the material by direct smelting
sulfide. Fig. 1 illustrates the equilibrium diagram for sulfur while or in a conventional gold ADR circuit is probably the most inexpen-
Fig. 2 illustrates the meta-stable sulfur diagram more commonly sive and most effective method of recovering refining the gold as a
encountered and utilized in ASL industry applications. dore.

Fig. 1. Equilibrium potential/pH (Eh–pH) diagram for sulfur (Pourbaix, 1966).

250 C.G. Anderson / Minerals Engineering 92 (2016) 248–256

Fig. 2. Meta-stable potential/pH (Eh–pH) diagram for sulfur (Huang, 2007).

Fig. 3. Equilibrium species Eh–pH diagram for sulfur and alkaline, sulfide gold (Anderson et al., 2005).

Fig. 4. Equilibrium species Eh–pH diagram for 100 ppm Au in a 1, molar solution at 25 C and at 200 C (Anderson et al., 2004).

Table 1 Table 3
Alkaline sulfide leach initial solution assay. Overall elemental distribution.

Volume, L Au, mg/L Sb, g/L As, g/L Hg, mg/L Sn, g/L Element Distribution to liquid, Distribution to solid,
% %
0.5 88.7 21.0 5.31 274 1.84
Gold 1.7 98.3
Antimony, arsenic, tin, 100.0 0.0
mercury

Table 2 Also the waste alkaline sulfide solutions can be recycled for
Alkaline sulfide leach final solution assay. further gold leaching or further processed with low temperature
oxidation to sodium sulfate, Na2SO4. This also oxidizes the arsenic
Volume, L Au, mg/L Sb, g/L As, g/L Hg, mg/L Sn, g/L
to soluble sodium arsenate which can then be precipitated by
0.5 1.5 21.1 5.21 274 1.89
conventional means as scorodite or ferrihydride using iron
 C.G. Anderson / Minerals Engineering 92 (2016) 248–256 251

compounds. This oxidation process has been practiced in industry where Ap is the piezoelectrically active area, lq is shear modulus of
(Edwards, 1985). The resultant sodium sulfate, after arsenic the quartz, qq is the quartz density and fo is the resonance frequency
removal, is further treated by purification and crystallization to of vibration.
produce high grade, marketable sodium sulfate. This process is Rotating disk electrodes were selected because the hydrody-
illustrated simplistically in the following scenario. namic conditions at the surface are well defined and mass transfer
from this geometry has been well established. This enables repro-
8NaOH þ Na3 AsS4 þ 8O2 ! Na3 AsO4 þ 4Na2 SO4 þ 4H2 O ð12Þ ducible conditions, independent of experimental variables such as
sample geometry and vessel design.
2O2 þ Na2 S ! Na2 SO4 ð13Þ Electrochemical processes such as leaching, often occur simul-
taneously with other related reactions. The observed current den-
3:5O2 þ 2NaOH þ Na2 S2 ! 2Na2 SO4 þ H2 O ð14Þ sity is the sum of all electrochemical reactions occurring at the
solid solution interface. By measuring mass, current and potential
8O2 þ 8NaOH þ Na2 S5 ! 5Na2 SO4 þ 4H2 O ð15Þ
reactions can be distinguished because a dissolution reaction will
result in noticeable mass decrease, whereas, other reactions will
2NaOH þ 2O2 þ Na2 S2 O3 ! 2Na2 SO4 þ H2 O ð16Þ
not. To date there is no other technique capable, apart from the
This versatile and environmentally benign chemical may then REQCM, for studying dissolution reactions where there are other
be sold to and utilized in industries such as pulp and paper, glass, electrochemical reactions not of interest occurring simultaneously.
ceramics, detergents, textile dyes, mineral feed supplements,
bleach and photography. As such, there are minimal environmental 3. ASL gold leaching fundamentals – REQCM experimental
or toxicological issues in the use of alkaline sulfide gold recoveries method
as the waste products become value added, marketable
by-products. In order to delineate the alkaline sulfide gold leaching reaction
As well the sodium sulfate produced can be used to regenerate mechanism, some fundamental electrochemical leaching tests
the sodium hydroxide needed in the process in a manner analo- were undertaken at Monash University at the request of the author
gous to industrial dual alkali scrubbing systems (Lunt et al., using a rotating electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance
2003). The process is illustrated in Eq. (17): (REQCM). All fundamental experiments were carried out using
2Na2 SO4 þ CaðOHÞ2 þ 2H2 O ! CaSO4 : 2H2 O þ 2NaOH ð17Þ solutions prepared from analytical grade reagents and Millipore
Milli-Q water. All experiments were conducted at a rotation rate
The clean gypsum product can then be marketed and used in of 300 rpm and a scan rate of 1 mV s
1. Mass changes were mea-
such applications as agricultural soil amendments or as an additive sured using the rotating electrochemical quartz crystal microbal-
in primary cement manufacture. In addition, initial efforts are ance (REQCM). Prior to each experiment, gold was plated onto
underway and have been successfully confirmed in regenerating the electrode at 25 A m
2 from a solution containing 0.02 M potas-
the necessary H2SO4 and NaOH reagents from the Na2SO4 by- sium dicyanoaurate, 0.23 M potassium cyanide, 0.086 M potassium
product utilizing electrodialysis. This may be illustrated as follows: carbonate, and 0.5 mM silver nitrate. This resulted in a deposit of
approximately 5% silver by mass.
Na2 SO4 þ 2H2 O ! H2 SO4 þ 2NaOH ð18Þ
Using a potentiostat, and the REQCM apparatus, linear sweep
voltammetry (LSV) was then performed. The cell consisted of a
2. Rotating Electrochemical Quartz Crystal Microbalance platinum wire for the working electrode, a calomel reference elec-
(REQCM) trode (inside, a Luggin capillary) and the working electrode. All
potentials were measured relative to the saturated calomel elec-
In characterizing the kinetics of gold leaching rate, it is pre- trode, but were reported relative to the standard hydrogen elec-
ferred to monitor change in mass of gold with time. The REQCM trode (SHE). Unless stated otherwise, all cyanide experiments
provides an extremely sensitive way to measure mass changes, contained 2.5 mM sodium cyanide, a concentration chosen to be
with changes of 10 nanograms being detectable. The REQCM also representative of typical industrial gold ore treatment (Chapman
has the distinct benefit of offering measurements of mass changes et al., 2000).
to be made both in-situ and in real time, delivering meaningful
leach data in minutes. In comparison, traditional methods can only 4. ASL RECQM experimental results and discussion
offer average leaching rates over a specified sample interval.
The REQCM has its basis in the application of a potential across The sulfide/polysulfide system, while known to leach gold, has
a quartz crystal, which results in a mechanical strain. This phe- received little fundamental research. The occurrence of electro-
nomenon is known as the converse piezoelectric effect. When an chemical reactions other than those concerned with leaching has
alternating current of approximately 10 MHz is used, resonant made previous analysis of the system difficult using standard elec-
oscillations occur. Jeffrey et al. (2000) contains detailed diagrams trochemical techniques. To differentiate between the reaction of
of the REQCM operating system. interest and other electrochemical processes occurring, it is possi-
In electrochemistry, the electrode used to induce resonant oscil- ble to convert the mass changes, m, (measured by the REQCM)
lations can also react with the solution. To prevent electrode reac- using Faraday’s law into an equivalent current density, icalc, where,
tion the electrodes were protected by sputtering a layer of
platinum onto the electrode to which gold was subsequently elec- nF dm
icalc ¼ ð20Þ
trodeposited. The change in electrode mass Dm will cause a varia- AM dt
tion in the resonant frequency Df. Ward (1995) demonstrated that where icalc represents the current density due solely to the dissolu-
the Sauerbrey equation provides a good correlation between Dm tion reaction. The other variables have been defined previously. This
and Df: technique was applied when studying the sulfide/polysulfide
system.

Ap ðlq qq Þ0:5 Df
Dm ¼ 2
ð19Þ In order for leaching to take place there needs to be an oxidant
2f o and a lixiviant present in the system. Leaching experiments were
252 C.G. Anderson / Minerals Engineering 92 (2016) 248–256

90

80 Change in Mass
-30
70

Measured Current
60

I / A m-2
Current
50
-70

40

30 Calculated Current
-110
20

10

0 -150
-550 -530 -510 -490 -470 -450 -430 -410 -390 -370

Potential
E / mV

Fig. 5. Reverse potential sweep of 50 g L
1 sulfide at a temperature of 30 °C.

Fig. 6. Pourbaix diagram for the sulfide to sulfur system.

10

5
Calculated Current

-5
I / A m-2
Current

-10
Measured Current

-15

-20

-25
-550 -450 -350 -250 -150 -50 50
Potential
E / mV

Fig. 7. Reverse potential sweep of 50 g L
1 polysulfide at a temperature of 30 °C.

 C.G. Anderson / Minerals Engineering 92 (2016) 248–256 253

30

25

50 g L-1 sulfide
20

I / A m-2
Current
15
-1
50 g L bisulfide

10

5
-1
50 g L polysulfide

0
-600 -500 -400 -300 -200 -100 0
Potential
E / mV

Fig. 8. Reverse potential sweeps for potential lixiviants at a concentration of 50 g L
1 and a temperature of 30 °C.

Table 4 indicate that leaching is occurring. This suggests that sulfide is a

Stability constants and standard reduction potentials, for sulfur containing gold potential lixiviant within the system. The oxidation reaction for
complexes. gold complex formation at the anode is shown below:
Complex b Reaction E0, mV
AuS

2  1036


AuS þ e ! Au þ S 2

460 Au þ S2
! AuS
þ e
ð21Þ
Au(HS)
1.3  10 30
AuðHSÞ


2 þ e ! Au þ 2HS



90
2
A potential scan in the positive direction increases the driving
force of the anodic reaction, conversely a potential scan in the neg-
ative direction increases the driving force of the cathodic reaction.
conducted on three solutions; 50 g L
1 sulfide (S2
), 50 g L
1 bisul- Therefore, one would expect a reverse scan to show a decrease in
fide (HS
) and 50 g L
1 polysulfide (Sx2
). Results showed that no the amount of leaching compared to that of the forward scan.
leaching occurred when using each of the three solutions, indicat- Leaching rate was found to increase on the reverse scan, showing
ing none of the sulfide species are able to promote leaching a translation in the negative potential direction. This translation
independently. is known as a hysteresis. The hysteresis indicates that leaching of
A reverse potential sweep was performed on the 50 g L
1 sulfide gold on the forward scan is more difficult to achieve than on the
system at a temperature of 30 °C. The variations of measured cur- reverse scan. The conclusion extracted from this observation is
rent, mass and calculated current with change in potential are pre- leaching is difficult to initiate, yet, once begun leaching can occur
sented in Fig. 5. Differences between the measured and calculated readily. If the scan was not reversed, the current increased expo-
current densities for the linear sweep confirm the presence of nentially. This growth implies no diffusion limiting plateau would
other electrochemical processes not of interest within this study. have been reached, suggesting that the electrochemical reaction is
Observed increases in calculated current densities with potential rate limiting.

18

16

14

12 50 g L-1 sulfide
I / A m-2
Current

10

8
20 g L-1 sulfide

2 -1
10 g L sulfide
5 g L-1 sulfide
0
-600 -550 -500 -450 -400 -350 -300 -250 -200 -150 -100
Potential
E / mV

Fig. 9. Linear sweep voltammograms showing calculated current density at different sulfide concentrations at a temperature of 30 °C.
254 C.G. Anderson / Minerals Engineering 92 (2016) 248–256

-2

-4

-6

Change in Mass -8
Δm /μg
-10

-12

-14

-16

-18
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
Time / s

Fig. 10. Kinetics plot of gold leaching in 25 g L
1 sulfide, and 25 g L
1 polysulfide solution at 50 °C.

2.5

2.3

2.1

1.9
ln (105r / mol m-2 s-1)

1.7

1.5

1.3

1.1

0.9

0.7

0.5
2.85 2.90 2.95 3.00 3.05 3.10 3.15 3.20 3.25 3.30 3.35

(103/T) / K-1

Fig. 11. Arrhenius plot for the rate of gold dissolution as a function of inverse temperature.

Both chemical and electrochemical process thermodynamics For a polysulfide with x equals 2:
can be effectively examined with potential–pH diagrams, com-

monly referred to as Pourbaix diagrams. Pourbaix diagrams are S2

2 þ 2e ! 2S
2

ð23Þ
constructed from thermodynamic data and thus represent the Assuming that sulfide is the lixiviant and polysulfide (S2

2 ) the
thermodynamic behavior of the system. The Pourbaix diagram oxidant, the overall reaction can be written as:
(Fig. 6) for sulfide to sulfur verifies that sulfide (S2
) is not an oxi-
dant, as sulfide has the lowest oxidation state of the sulfur species. 2Au þ S2

2 þ 2S
2

! 2AuS
þ 2S2
ð24Þ
A reverse potential sweep was performed on the 50 g L
1 poly-
A comparison of sulfide, bisulfide and polysulfide as potential
sulfide system at a temperature of 30 °C, and the results are shown
lixiviants for the system are shown in Fig. 8. The large calculated
in Fig. 7. Increase in potential resulted in small calculated current
current for sulfide in comparison to those of bisulfide and polysul-
densities, indicating a slow leach rate which suggests polysulfide
fide, suggests that sulfide is the dominant lixiviant of the system,
is a poor lixiviant. The leaching that does occur may be attributable
and that bisulfide and polysulfide are poor lixiviants. The actual
to the presence of a small amount of sulfide in equilibrium with
leaching occurring in the polysulfide and bisulfide system may
the polysulfides in the system. The large negative current at poten-
be attributable to the presence of some sulfide in equilibrium with
tials more negative than
500 mV infers polysulfide is a good oxi-
the bisulfide and polysulfide.
dant. An oxidant has to be able to be reduced, and a reduction
A number of ligands form stable compound with the aurous
reaction produces a negative current.
cations, including sulfide and bisulfide. From the data presented
The Pourboix diagram verifies that polysulfide is a potential oxi-
in Table 4. It is seen that sulfide forms a more stable complex with
dant, as it is reduced from high molecular weight polysulfides to
gold than bisulfide as shown by the larger stability constant, b,
low molecular weight polysulfides or to sulfide. Reduction of poly-
confirming what was seen experimentally.
sulfide may be represented by the below half reaction:
Fig. 8 establishes sulfide as the dominant lixiviant. The concen-


tration of sulfide required for leaching in this discrete system at
S2

x þ 2ðx
1Þe ! xS
2

ð22Þ 30 °C was investigated and the results are shown in Fig. 9.
 C.G. Anderson / Minerals Engineering 92 (2016) 248–256 255

At 30 °C concentrations of at least 20 g L
1 sulfide are required The activation energy of the 50 g L
1 sulfide and 25 g L
1 polysul-
for significant leaching to occur. At low sulfide concentration pas- fide system was 41.6 kJ mol
1, indicating that the dissolution of
sivation of gold is thought to occur by the formation of a mono- gold in this polysulfide/sulfide system is chemically controlled.
layer of sulfide like sulfur on the surface (Jeffrey and Breuer, 2000).
Acknowledgements
Au þ xS2
! AuSx þ x2e
ð25Þ
The monolayer is then leached from the gold surface to form a The author would like to thank Dr. M.I. Jeffrey and Dr. Paul
polysulfide at high sulfide concentration as illustrated by reaction Breuer, Dr. W.L. Choo, Ms. Natasha Chapman and Mr. Jim Wall of
(26). Monash University and Mr. Darby Stacey and Mr. Karel Pramono
for their valuable contributions to the manuscript in the underly-
AuSx þ S2
! Au þ S2

ðxþaÞ ð26Þ ing REQCM work he had requested and sponsored them to do in
the support of a better initial understanding the ASL gold leaching
The second reaction (Eq. (26)) can be considered to be the rate
system.
limiting step. At low sulfide concentrations, the limiting step is
slow and the surface remains passivated, inhibiting leaching. At References
higher concentrations, the limiting step is faster, and the gold sur-
face is free to be leached. Anderson, C.G., Nordwick, S.M., Krys, L.E., 1992. Processing of antimony at the
Previous results have suggested that sulfide is a good complex- Sunshine mine. In: Reddy, R.G., Imrie, W.P., Queneau, P.B. (Eds.), Residues and
Effluents – Processing and Environmental Considerations. AIME-TMS, San
ing lixiviant at concentrations greater than 20 g L
1 and that poly- Diego, CA, pp. 349–366.
sulfide is a potential oxidant. Leach experiments were conducted Anderson, C.G., Krys, L.E., 1993. Leaching of antimony from a refractory precious
on a combined system of lixiviant and oxidant to investigate metals concentrate. In: Proceedings of The Fourth International Symposium on
Hydrometallurgy, Salt Lake City, Utah, SME, pp. 341–363.
whether leaching occurs. The kinetics plot of change in mass ver- Anderson, C.G., Nordwick, S.M., Krys, L.E., 1994. Antimony Separation Process, U.S.
sus time for a solution containing 25 g L
1 sulfide and 25 g L
1 Patent No. 5,290,338, March 1, 10 pgs.
polysulfide showed that the steady state gold leach rate was Anderson, C.G., 2000. A survey of primary antimony production. In: Young,
Courtney (Ed.), Minor Elements 2000 Processing and Environmental Aspects
1.9  10
5 mol m
2 s
1 (see Fig. 10).
of As, Sb, Se, Te and Bi. SME, Colorado, pp. 261–275.
As the leach rate was relatively low (1.9  10
5 mol m
2 s
1) Anderson, C.G., 2001a. Industrial nitrogen species catalyzed pressure leaching and
compared to the cyanidation process, further studies were con- alkaline sulfide gold recovery from refractory gold concentrates. Precious
ducted using 50 g L
1, while the polysulfide concentration was Metals 2001, 25th Annual IPMI Meeting, Tucson, Arizona, June, 21 pgs.
Anderson, C.G., 2001b. Hydrometallurgical treatment of antimony-bearing
kept constant at 25 g L
1. The leach rate was investigated at tem- industrial wastes. J. Metals TMS 53 (1), 18–20.
peratures of 30, 50, 60 and 70 °C revealing that the gold dissolution Anderson, C.G., 2002. The chemical analysis of industrial alkaline sulfide
rate is highly dependent on temperature, with negligent leaching hydrometallurgical processes. In: Proceedings of the Society of Mineral
Analysts and the Canadian Mineral Analysts Annual Meeting, Spokane,
at 30 °C compared to that occurring at 60 °C. Washington, April, 13 pgs.
According to the Arrhenius equation, the rate constant is an Anderson, C.G., 2003a. The industrial alkaline sulfide hydrometallurgical treatment
exponential function of the activation energy and the absolute of mercury bearing antimony ores and concentrates. EPD Congress 2003, TMS
Annual Meeting, TMS, San Diego, CA., February, 11 pgs.
temperature (Eq. (27)). Anderson, C.G., 2003b. Alkaline sulfide recovery of gold utilizing nitrogen species
Ea catalyzed. Proceedings of the Fifth International Symposium on
k ¼ Ae
RT ð27Þ Hydrometallurgy, Vancouver, British Columbia. The Minerals, Metals and
Materials Society, Warrendale, Pa, pp. 75–87.

2
1
where k is the rate constant (mol m s ), A is the frequency factor Anderson, C.G., 2005. The treatment of arsenic bearing ores, concentrates and
(mol m
2 s
1), R is the universal gas constant (8.314 J K
1 mol
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