Parametric Study on the Adsorption of Gold onto Activated Carbon from Gold Cyanide Solutions

الملخص

The adsorption process using activated carbon is widely adopted in the gold extraction industry. This study investigates the effect of the adsorbent concentration, initial gold concentration, pH, contact time, agitation speed and the total dissolved solids on the adsorption of gold onto activated carbon from gold cyanide solutions. Adsorption was found to be strongly affected by the aforementioned factors, with the exception of the initial gold concentration and total dissolved solids (TDS). The optimum values obtained were 10 g/L (adsorbent concentration), pH 10, and 70 rpm (agitation speed), achieving more than 90% adsorption in less than 40 minutes at ambient temperature and pressure.