Geoecological evaluation of processing technologies for ores with variable material constitution

The article describes the integrated geoecological and technological study of gold-bearing ore with variable material constitution. The analyses of economic and sub-economic ore samples (chemical, assaying, X-ray fluorescent, atomic emission spectroscopy) find out that the test material is low-sulfide ore (1.4–2.7% of sulfides), with dominant quarts, feldspar and mica, as well as supergene minerals of iron. It is shown that processing of sub-economic ore needs soft technologies (gravity, bio-leaching) because of risk of acid formation and migration of heavy metals. The sorption ability of fresh and recovered activated carbon is investigated. The limit sorption capacity of recovered carbon with respect to gold is lower (1.5 mg/g as against 2 mg/g), which may increase quantity of waste in recycling. Detoxification of liquid cyanidation tailings used calcium hypochlorite (active chlorine consumption of 0.75 kg/m3) which reduced concentration of cyanides from 89.0 to 0.006 mg/l and ensured removal of heavy metals. The post-processing fixed residue is related to hazard class 5 (nonhazardous waste), which allows using it in reclamation or backfill. The necessity of closed-loop water–chemistry regime is validated for the prevention of secondary pollution of the hydrosphere. 

Klyuev R. V. Geoecological evaluation of processing technologies for ores with variable material constitution. MIAB. Mining Inf. Anal. Bull. 2026;(8):67-78. [In Russ]. DOI: 10.25018/0236_1493_2026_8_0_67.

R.V. Klyuev, Dr. Sci. (Eng.), Assistant Professor, Professor, Moscow Polytechnic University, 107023, Moscow, Russia, e-mail: kluev-roman@rambler.ru, ORCID ID: 0000-0003-3777-7203.

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