Kwame Nkrumah University of

Science & Technology, Kumasi, Ghana

MSE 256 Assaying

2 Credit Hours

Anthony Andrews (PhD)

Associate Professor
Department of Materials Engineering
Faculty of Mechanical and Chemical Engineering
College of Engineering
Website: www.anthonydrews.wordpress.com
Online Lectures: classroom.knust.edu.gh

Teaching Assistants: Ms Freda Quaye / Ms Mabel Agyare

 Gold Ores
• Gold is the most noble metal – natural occurrence

• Typical ore grades: 0.5 to 20 g/t

• Primary gold source - ores

• Secondary gold sources

– gravity concentrates
– flotation concentrates
– plant tailings
– refinery tailings
– recycled gold
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Classification of Gold Ores

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Classification of gold ores and typical recovery with traditional methods

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 Most common causes of refractoriness and double refractory ore appearance
Gold ores which have poor
solubility in cyanide, as well
as very fine grained gold
inside sulfides make the ore
refractory. In these cases, it is
said that the gold is "locked"
because it cannot be accessed
by cyanide.

Preg-robbing – Au particles
are re-adsorbed by the
minerals that compose the
gangue, thus reducing the
recovery efficiency.

Leach-robbers - In copper-gold ores, copper

adsorbs the leaching solution, increasing the
consumption of reagents

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 Classification of Gold Ores

• Non-refractory;
– placer,
– free-milling,
– oxidized

• Refractory
– Ultrafine gold particles in the matrix of sulphide minerals
– Carbonaceous materials

• Why mine refractory gold??

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 Types of Gold Deposits

• Placer ores – placer mining

• Oxidized ores – open pit
• Primary ores – underground
mining

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 Gold Ore Types
• Main ore types
easy
• placers
processing
• oxidized
• free milling
• silver rich
• iron sulphide bearing
• arsenic sulphide bearing
• carbonaceous
• copper bearing
• antimony bearing refractory
• gold telluride bearing

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 Gold in its ore (host material)
• Tiny particles (< 75 μm)

• Minute concentration (<0.001%)

• Highly disseminated in the gangue (unwanted) materials

(99.999%)

• Recovery depends on particle size of gold and degree of

association with unwanted materials

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 Traditional Gold Recovery

• Recovery rate of refractory gold ores can be improved through

roasting (700oC).
– Conversion of sulphur ores to oxides

• Laboratory roasting is done in an electric furnace in the presence

of oxygen.

• Use of lead and other reagents in laboratory smelting to recover

as much gold as possible (Fire Assaying).

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 Characteristics of Gold Ores

• Gold grain size distribution

• Type of gangue minerals

• Mineral associations and alterations

• Mineralogical mode of occurrence

• Variations of the above items within the same ore body

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 Characterization Methods
• Some assay methods are suitable for raw materials; others are more
appropriate for finished goods.
– Silver is assayed by titration, gold by cupellation and platinum by
inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP OES).

• Some tests are destructive others are non-destructive

– X-ray fluorescence (XRF)
– X-ray diffractometer (XRD)
– Optical microscope (OM)
– Scanning electron microscope (SEM)
– Raman spectrometer (RS)
– X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS)
– Atomic emission spectrophotometer (AES)

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 Parameters to look out for
• Qualitative and quantitative identification of:
– Elements
– Minerals
– Compounds, etc.

• Mineral associations

• Many other things like:

– Shape/size
– Texture
– Crack propagation
– Presence of microcracks

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 Analysis
• Determination of:
– Moisture content and pulp density
– Dissolved oxygen, pH and lime addition
– Cyanide consumption

• Acid digestion
• Cyanidation
• Bottle roll test
• Column leaching
• Diagnostic leaching
• Fire assaying

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Determination of Moisture Content

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Determination of Moisture Content

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Determination of Pulp Density

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Determination of Pulp Density

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Determination of pH and Lime

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 Determination of Cyanide
Consumption
• Leaching of gold with cyanide can be done using
– Rolling bottle with perforated lid
– Columns (cylinders with perforated base)
– Miniature tank with a stirrer
– Beaker placed on a shaker
– Bottle/beaker/container with magnetic stirrer

• pH of solution is raised to about 11, before cyanide

addition
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 Bottle Roll Test
• Weigh 1 kg of sample

• Prepare 50% pulp density

• Adjust pH

• Add cyanide

• Agitate by rolling bottle for 72 hrs

• Take solution samples at time intervals (1,2,4,12, 24 hrs)

• Take 100 g samples to determine the tailings grade

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 Column or Percolation Leach Test

• Design parameters used for heap leaching

• Crush ores

• Mount in columns

• Irrigate with cyanide

• Several columns mounted to determine the appropriate

particle size, strength of cyanide etc.

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 Acid Digestion

• Dissolution of metals/elements using acid

• High temperature and/pressure

• Fume chamber with extractor is required

• Small quantities of material can be used

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 Acid Digestion
• Perchloric acid (HClO4)
– Used for wet ashing when sample contains carbonaceous
material

• Hydrofluoric acid (HF)

– Used to digest silica to release occluded minerals
– Digestion is carried out in Teflon beakers

• Aqua-regia
– Used to determine gold in samples
– Mixture of HNO3 and HCl (1:3)
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 Diagnostic Leaching
1. Water leaching (if tailings material)
2. Cyanide leaching of liberated gold
3. Digestion with dilute hydrochloric acid to break down weak
components like carbonates, followed by cyanide leaching
4. Digestion with nitric acid to break down/oxidize components like
sulfur, followed by cyanide leaching
5. Roast at 750oC to decompose carbonaceous matter, followed by
cyanide leaching
6. Fire assaying of final tailings to determine gold in quartz, or
leaching with hydroflouric acid (teflon beaker)
7. Add all the gold to get the calculated head grade
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 Conversion of grade from g/l of
solvent to g/t of ore

Question
Suppose a 50g sample was digested with acid and then
filtered into a 100 ml volumetric flask and topped to the
mark with distilled water. If the AAS reading is 3.5 mg/l,
estimate the grade of ore in g/t.

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 Gold Recovery
Question
A Bottle roll test was conducted on 2 kg of a soil sample at 50%
solids. 50 g of the tailings was digested with aqua-regia and topped to
10 ml. The data obtained after AAS is presented in Table 1. Find the
head grade and percent recovery for each period and plot a suitable
graph. Are there preg-robbers in the sample?

Time, h Gold in solution, mg/l

2 1.75
4 1.52
8 3.10
16 4.52
24 4.35
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Tailings 0.92 26
 Example
A wet free-milling gold ore sample weighing 150 kg was delivered
to an assayer to determine the grade of gold in the ore. The moisture
content of four replicate samples from the bulk material were
determined (Table 1). The team also took triplicate samples
weighing 50 g (dry weight) each for fire assaying, and the average
gold content per sample was 0.35 mg.
a) Find the average percent moisture of the bulk material.
b) Estimate the quantity (in mg) of gold in the sample.

Samples One Two Three Four

Wet weight (g) 105 95 90 100
Dry weight (g) 85.6 76.5 85.5 84

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