Experience of gold phytoextraction from manmade resources

The areas of long-term gold mining in Siberia and in the Far East of Russia have accumulated billions of cubic meters of mining waste at natural gold placers–dredge and sluice tailings dumps, black dirt and debris–and tailings at concentration plants. Such waste contains from 0.5 to 1.0 g/t of gold and is considered today as the manmade resources processible using innovative technologies. The bio-technologies of gold mining are reviewed, and the phytoextraction technology is examined in detail. The testing results of phytoextraction of gold from the manmade resources accumulated in the mined-out and unreclaimed areas are presented. The mined-out land inventory in the Bodaibo region is carried out, and the cumulative damage is assessed. It is found that the disturbed land areas were 194.66 km2 in the period from 1863 to 2020 and reached 214.85 km2 over the period up to 2023. The technology was applied to sluice tailings in the site of placer gold mining. The phytotoxicity of cyanides and the effects of cyanide-neutralizing enzymes are investigated, and the optimal phytomining conditions are determined. It is concluded that for the conditions of the Bodaibo region, the most effective approach is cultivation of industrial hemp at manmade deposits. It is found that for enhancing phytoextraction, it is required to introduce soil with sodium cyanide in an amount of 0.1–0.5 mg/kg at the end of a vegetation period. Finely dispersed gold recovery using this method may reach 99%.

Timofeeva S. S., Drozdova I. V. Experience of gold phytoextraction from manmade resources. MIAB. Mining Inf. Anal. Bull. 2024;(7):5-20. [In Russ]. DOI: 10.25018/0236_ 1493_2024_7_0_5.

S.S. Timofeeva¹, Dr. Sci. (Eng.), Professor, e-mail: timofeeva@istu.edu, ORCID ID: 0000-0001-8427-3732,
I.V. Drozdova¹, Graduate Student, e-mail: drozdovaiv@istu.edu, ORCID ID: 0000-0003-2234-6566,
¹ Irkutsk National Research Technical University, 664074, Irkutsk, Russia.

I.V. Drozdova, e-mail: drozdovaiv@istu.edu.

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