Agglomerating agents for clay containing ores
AssigneeBetz Laboratories, Inc.
InventorDavid M. Polizzotti
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Agglomerating agent and method for use in heap leaching of mineral bearing ores. A moderate to high molecular weight anionic polymer preferably in combination with lime provides a highly effective agglomerating agent. The anionic polymer is preferably a copolymer of acrylamide and acrylic acid. The polymer preferably has a molecular weight of from about 1 to 8 million or higher.
Claims18
In a process for percolation leaching of precious metal from a mineral bearing ore wherein the ore is first agglomerated with an agglomeration agent, formed into a heap and then leached by percolating a leaching solution through the heap which extracts the precious metal from the agglomerated ore for subsequent recovery, the improvement in which the agglomerating agent consists essentially of an anionic copolymer of acrylamide and acrylic acid wherein the mole ratio of acrylamide to acrylic acid ranges from about 90 to 10 to about 70 to 30, said copolymer having a molecular weight above about 1 million.
A method of extracting gold from gold ore by heap leaching with caustic cyanide comprising agglomerating the gold ore prior to being formed into a heap with an agglomerating agent consisting essentially of an anionic copolymer of an acrylamide and an acrylic acid in a ratio of acrylamide to acrylic acid ranging from about 90 to 10 to about 70 to 30, said copolymer having a molecular weight above about 1 million, at a treatment rate sufficient to provide an agglomerate having a percolation rate, higher than that obtained when cement is used as the agglomerating agent at the same treatment level and then leaching with caustic cyanide, collecting the gold rich leachate, and recovering gold thereform.
A method of extracting gold from gold ore by heap leaching with caustic cyanide comprising agglomerating the gold ore prior to being formed into a heap with an agglomerating agent comprising anionic copolymer of an acrylamide and an acrylic acid in a ratio of acrylamide to acrylic acid ranging from about 90 to 10 to about 70 to 30, in the absence of cement, said copolymer having a molecular weight above about 1 million, at a treatment rate sufficient to provide an agglomerate having a percolation rate, higher than that obtained when cement is used as the agglomerating agent at the same treatment level and then leaching with caustic cyanide, collecting the gold rich leachate, and recovering gold thereform.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.