Yang Yongbin

Removal of phosphorus from iron ores by chemical leaching

Alkali-leaching and acid-leaching were proposed for the dephosphorization of Changde iron ore, which contains an average of 1.12% for phosphorus content. Sodium hydroxide, sulfuriced, hydrochloric and nitric acids were used for the preparation of leach solutions. The results show that phosphorus occurring as apatite phase could be removed by alkali-leaching, but those occurring in the iron phase could not. Sulfuric acid is the most effective among the three kinds of acid. 91.61% phosphorus removal was attained with 1% sulfuric acid after leaching for 20 min at room temperature. Iron loss during acid-leaching can be negligible, which was less than 0.25%. The pH value of solution after leaching with 1% sulfuric acid was about 0.86, which means acid would not be exhausted during the process and it could be recycled, and the recycle of sulfuric acid solution would make the dephosphorization process more economical.

Anodic oxidation of thiosulfate ions in gold leaching

The regularities of anodic oxidation of thiosulfate ions on a gold electrode have been investigated using electrochemical methods in order to improve gold extraction. Effects of ammon, copper-ammon ions, pH and sulphite on anodic oxidation of thiosulfate ions have been examined in details. Results show that the anodic oxidation of thiosulfate ions is an inreversible reaction whose oxidizing peak potential is 620 mV/SCE in the absence of ammon. Oxidation rate increases with concentration of thiosulfate ions, but not in linear relation. It is also shown that ammon has significant effects on the oxidation of thiosulfate ions by causing great decrease in oxidation rate and negative shift of peak potential. The degrees of the rate decrease and negative shift increase with ammon concentration. When ammon concentration is incrcased to 1. 0 mol/L, the oxidation rate decreases to one fourth of that without ammon and the peak potential shifts from 620 mV/SCE to 350 mV/SCE.

Influence of copper minerals on cyanide leaching of gold

The paper thermodynamically examined the behavior of various copper minerals in cyanide solutions and investigated the influence of copper minerals on cyanide leaching of gold. In elucidating the influence of copper minerals on cyanide leaching of gold, copper minerals were classified into two types according to their solubility in cyanide solutions by proposing two concepts, cyaniding easily soluble copper (ECu) and cyaniding insoluble copper. The former involves copper occurrence in metal, oxides and secondary sulfides, and the latter refers mainly to primary sulfides. Experimental results show that not all the total copper in an ore affected cyanide leaching of gold, while cyaniding easily soluble copper turns out to be the decisive factor that interferes with gold cyanidation by causing decrease in gold cyanidation recovery and increase in cyanide consumption. When cyaniding easily soluble copper content (wE(Cu)) lies in the range of 0–0.25%, it linearly affects gold cyanidation recovery (R) as well as cyanide consumption (mc). The regression equations have been worked out to be R(%)=94.177 5−142.735 7 wE(Cu) with a correlation coefficient of −0.902 and mc=5.590 7 +33.572 9 wE(Cu) with a correlation coefficient of 0.945, respectively.

Selective recovery of silver from an acidic solution by cementation with copper

An acidic solution containing 280 mg/l silver and others was treated. In order to selectively recover silver without losing other metallic elements from the solution, cementation was adopted with metallic copper. The kinetics of cementation reaction and copper dissolution and mechanism of copper consumption were studied. The results indicated that the rate of cementation reaction and copper consumption were markedly increased with the increase of temperature. For the same cementation recovery of silver, copper consumption at elevated temperature was much higher than that at ambient temperature. Cementation rate and copper consumption rate also increased with the increase of stirring velocity, while copper consumption at different stirring velocity for the same recovery of silver was almost not different. Studies on the chemical mechanism of copper consumption showed that Fe3+ and residual leaching additive RH in the solution were the main factors that caused extra copper consumption in acidic solutions.