Metal value recovery from carbonaceous ores
AssigneeEnsci, Inc.
InventorsThomas J. Clough, John W. Sibert, Arthur C. Riese
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A process for recovering a first metal, e.g., gold, from a carbonaceous ore comprising contacting the ore with an added metal component other than an alkali metal or alkaline earth metal component in an amount effective to at least promote the oxidation of carbonaceous material in the ore, the contacting occurring at conditions effective to (1) chemically oxidize at least a portion of the carbonaceous material, and (2) at least partially liberate the first metal from the ore; and recovering the first metal from the ore.
Claims31
A process for recovering at least one first metal selected from the group consisting of gold, silver, the platinum group metals and mixtures thereof from an ore containing carbonaceous material comprising:
- contacting said ore with at least one component including an added metal in an amount effective to at least promote the oxidation of said carbonaceous material and at least one oxidant in an amount effective to provide at least one of the following:
- (A) form said component including said added metal, (B) regenerate said component including said added metal, and (C) oxidize said carbonaceous material, said contacting occurring in the presence of an aqueous medium at conditions effective to (1) chemically oxidize said carbonaceous material and (2) liberate said first metal from said ore, said component including said added metal being selected from the group consisting of iron complexes with ligands in which iron is present in an amount in the 3+ oxidation state effective to at least promote the oxidation of said carbonaceous material in said ore, copper complexes with ligands in which copper is present in an amount in the 2+ oxidation state effective to at least promote the oxidation of said carbonaceous material in said ore, vanadium components in which vanadium is present in the 5+ oxidation state in an amount effective to at least promote the oxidation of said carbonaceous material in said ore, manganese complexes with ligands in which manganese is present in the 3+ oxidation state in an amount effective to at least promote the oxidation of said carbonaceous material in said ore, and mixtures thereof;
- and recovering said first metal from said ore.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.