Minerals Engineering
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/mineng
Microwave heating of gold ores for enhanced grindability and cyanide amenability
R.K. Amankwah a, G. Ofori-Sarpong b,
a
b
Mineral Engineering Department, University of Mines and Technology, P.O. Box 237, Tarkwa, Ghana
Energy and Mineral Engineering Department, Penn State University, 216 Hosler Building, University Park, PA 16802, USA
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history:
Available online 30 December 2010
Keywords:
Microwaves
Grindability
Cyanide amenability
Free-milling gold ore
Selective heating
a b s t r a c t
In leaching processes, the mass transport of lixiviants from the bulk of the solution to the site of the mineral of interest is usually the slowest step. Diffusion becomes slower when the particles to be leached are
occluded in host minerals. Access to the mineral of interest is enhanced by micro-crack formation within
the host minerals as it enhances percolation and migration of lixiviants. Micro-crack formation also augments grinding and allows size reduction and liberation at a lower stress level. In this research, microwave pretreatment was used to augment the grinding of a free-milling gold ore containing quartz,
silicates and iron oxides. Under microwave irradiation, selective heating of the different mineral components resulted in thermal stress cracking. Microwave processing enhanced the grindability of the ore, and
crushing strength was reduced by 31.2%. The presence of micro-cracks improved leaching rate, and over
95% extraction was achieved within 12 h as against 22 h for the non-microwaved sample. Such a strategy
can be used to maximize recovery and man-hours on processing plants.
2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Most metal dissolution processes are controlled by diffusion of
the reacting species from the bulk of the solution and through the
Nernst boundary layer to the reaction site on the mineral of interest. The rate of mass transport is further reduced when the mineral
of interest is occluded in host minerals which in many cases do act
as additional barriers. To liberate metals and expose them to lixiviant attack, comminution is utilized (Gupta and Mukherjee, 1990).
Comminution technology generally involves the application of
mechanical energy to break down particles and create ner units.
This applied mechanical energy takes advantage of existing aws
in the material, extending existing cracks and creating new ones
in areas of weakness until the material fails and the particle breaks.
Thus, if more imperfections are created, the material will yield
more readily to applied mechanical stress.
Modication of the mechanical properties of ores may be
achieved by: (1) changing the specic energy during blasting
(Eloranta, 1995), (2) the use of high energy to propagate microcrack formation such as the high pressure grinding rolls (Schonert,
1988) and (3) electrical/ultrasonic energy (Parekh et al., 1984;
Walkiewicz et al., 1991). Another technique of high research interest is microwave assisted grinding to improve grindability of ores
and liberation of minerals of interest (Walkiewicz et al., 1991;
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: rkamankwah@umat.edu.gh (R.K. Amankwah), gad164@
psu.edu, goforisarp@gmail.com (G. Ofori-Sarpong).
0892-6875/$ - see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.mineng.2010.12.002
2. Experimental work
2.1. Materials
The sample used in this study was free-milling gold ore from
the Tarkwaian rock system in Ghana, West Africa. X-ray Diffraction
(XRD) using a Philips XPert Pro MPD diffractometer revealed the
major phases to be quartz, aluminosilicates, hematite and magnetite. Pure samples of magnetite, hematite, aluminosilicate and silica which were used as surrogates were obtained from Ward
Minerals. Selected particles of both as-received and microwave
processed samples were coated with carbon to improve the electrical conductivity, and their morphologies were examined using a
JEOL JSM 840 scanning electron microscope (SEM).
600
450
Temperature, C
542
300
150
0
magnetite
hematite
aluminosilicate
silica
Sample Name
Fig. 1. The sample temperature attained by the major mineral constituents of the
ore after heating 10 g samples for 5 min at microwave power of 700 W.
543
Fig. 2. Scanning electron micrograph of the as-received sample (a) and the microwave heated sample showing thermal stress cracking (b).
Silica-rich
minerals
Iron-rich
minerals
500 m
Gold particles
Fig. 3. Optical micrograph of the microwave heated sample showing thermal stress
cracking.
3.4. Cyanidation
The as-received and microwaved samples that were milled to
80% passing 75 lm were subjected to cyanide leaching by the bottle roll technique for 24 h at 500 mg/L cyanide concentration, and
the results are presented in Fig. 5. For the microwave processed
sample, about 70% of gold was leached within the initial 4 h
increasing to 92% after 8 h and 97% by the 12th hour. Gold extraction from the as-received sample, on the other hand, was 42% after
100
1600
1200
Gold extraction, %
Crushing strength, kN
80
800
60
40
400
20
as-received
microwaved
microwaved
as-received
0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Particles tested
0
0
12
16
20
24
Time, hr
Fig. 4. A scatter plot showing the crushing strength of 50 microwaved and nonmicrowaved particles tested.
544
4 h, 68% at the end of the 8th hour and the total gold extraction
after 24 h was 92%.
The faster leaching rate of the microwave processed ore may be
attributed to the thermal stress cracking due to differential heating
of the individual minerals that make up the ore. Micro-cracking as
observed in Fig. 3 increased the ease of access of leaching reagent
to the mineral of interest and consequently, gold leaching was enhanced. In a typical plant situation, the shorter leaching time
would be benecial as it will increase throughput, and monetary
requirements for a shift of about 10 h could be saved.
4. Conclusions
Microwave pretreatment was used to generate micro-cracks
and reduce the crushing strength of a free-milling gold ore containing magnetite, hematite silicates and quartz. The responses of
these mineral constituents to microwaves ranged from hyperactive
to passive. Under microwave irradiation, selective heating of the
different mineral components resulted in thermal stresses and
fracturing. Microwave pretreatment reduced the crushing strength
of the ore by 31.2%. The presence of micro-cracks improved leaching rate and over 95% extraction was achieved within 12 h as
against 22 h for the non-microwaved sample. The paper conrms
that microwave heating could be utilized to improve grindability
and enhance leachability, resulting in reduction in leaching time.
The authors thus propose the use of microwave pretreatment as
a strategy to maximize recovery and man-hours on gold processing
plants.
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