FLOTATION OF POWDERED ACTIVATED CARBON WITH ADSORBED GOLD(I)-THIOUREACOMPLEX

In non-cyanide technology gold is often leached by thiourea in acidic medium. Therefore, the potential techniques for recovering gold from t hiourea solutions are of interest. A separation technique has been inv estigated in laboratory scale batch experiments, involving gold adsorp tion on powdered activated carbon; the latter was compared with granul ar carbon. Foam flotation was employed for the subsequent solid/liquid separation, using sodium oleate as surfactant. The promising results obtained were further studied by means of electrokinetic measurements. Motivation of this work was the possible application of the process i n gold leach solutions, for instance, after heap leaching.