ADSORPTION AND DESORPTION OF GOLD ON ACTIVATED CARBON Objectives: To study the effects of particle size, cyanide strength, degree

of agitation and temperature on the rates of gold adsorption on activated carbon. To study the effects of temperature, % NaCN and % ethanol on the desorption of gold from loaded carbon Equipment and Materials Beakers, Volumetric flask AAS, Analytical balance Strainer Procedure: A. ADSORPTION 1. Obtain 10 g of activated carbon. 2. Add the activated carbon to the gold leach solution 3. Agitate for 2 hours by bottle-rolling or by stirring 4. Collect the carbon using the strainer. 5. Wash the carbon with 0.5 M HCl, and then with distilled water. B. DESORPTION 1. Prepare the 800ml of the following strip solution. Make sure that the pH is around 10-11. Adjust the pH by adding NaOH pellets. Strip Solution A B C % NaCN 0.1 0.2 0.2 % Ethanol 10 10 20 Activated Carbon NaCN Ethanol NaOH pellets,

2. Place the loaded carbon in a beaker with the corresponding strip solution. For the heated trip solution, preheat the solution first. Refer to the table below. Run 1 2 3 4 Strip Solution A B C C Temperature 25 25 25 50

3. Take three (3) 10 ml aliquots after 3 hours. Analyze for gold content using AAS. Recycle the gold standard used in the analysis for the residue in cyanidation experiment by adding some amount of ethanol 4. Determine remaining Au in the activated carbon by acid digestion

Guide Questions: 1. Discuss mechanism of gold adsorption on activated carbon. 2. Discuss the effects of the factors studied in cyanidation experiment on the amount of gold adsorbed by the activated carbon. Construct appropriate plots. 3. Discuss the mechanism of gold desorption from loaded carbon. 4. Explain the effects of temperature, %NaCN and %ethanol on the amount of gold stripped from the loaded carbon 5. Describe other methods of gold adsorption on carbon. 6. Give other methods of stripping gold from loaded carbon