METHOD OF RECOVERING GOLD VIA HEAP AND PERCOLATION LEACHING FROM SLIME AND ARGILLACEOUS ORES Russian patent published in 2004 - IPC

FIELD: gold mining. SUBSTANCE: claimed method is suitable to be applied when recovering gold from ores, concentrated products and old slimes from concentration plants, which contain large amounts of fine material leading to difficulties both in formation of heap and in the leaching solution filtration process. Method comprises crushing ore, preparing batch, binder-assisted agglomeration, adding surfactant and medium pH-controlling substance, forming heap, sprinkling heap by leaching solution, and recovering gold from solution. Surfactant utilized is humic acid taken in amount ranging from 0.05 and 8.1 kg/t and, as medium pH- controlling substance, alkalis (in particular sodium hydroxide) forming soluble salts with humin acids are used, humic acid being added during preparation of batch or directly when agglomerating ore. Above-mentioned binder is cement taken in amounts corresponding to weight ratio with humic acid from 8:0.01 to 5:1 depending of type of ore. EFFECT: increased by 2-3 times recovery of gold and achieved 5-6-fold reduction in leaching duration. 4 cl, 4 dwg, 2 tbl