Kinetic Aspects of Gold and Silver Recovery in Cementation with Zinc Power and Electrocoagulation Iron Process

Gabriela V. Figueroa Martinez, José R. Parga Torres, Jesús L. Valenzuela García, Guillermo C. Tiburcio Munive, Gregorio González Zamarripa

Department of Chemical Engineering and Metallurgy, University of Sonora, Hermosillo, México.
Department of Metallurgy and Materials Science, Institute of Technology of Saltillo, Saltillo, México.

DOI: 10.4236/aces.2012.23040                

Abstract

The Merrill-Crowe or Cementation process is used for concentration and purification of gold and silver from cyanide solutions. Among other available options for recovery of precious metals from cyanide solutions, Electrocoagulation (EC) is a very promising electrochemical technique for the recovery of this precious metals. In this work first, an introduction to the fundamentals of the Merrill Crowe and EC process are given, then Kinetic aspects conditions and results of the both process, for the removal of gold and silver from cyanide solutions are presented, and finally the characterization of the solid products formed during the EC process with X-ray Diffraction and SEM are shown. Results suggests that The cementation of both gold and silver by suspended zinc particles conforms to well-behaved fist order kinetics and for the EC process the results show that is an excellent option to remove Au and Ag from cyanide solution by using iron electrodes. Finally, 99.5% of gold and silver were removed in the experimental EC reactor, and it was achieved in 5 minutes or less.

Keywords

Cyanidation; Merrill Crowe; Electrocoagulation; Kinetics

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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