CIL GOLD EXTRACTION FROM PREG ROBBING AUTOCLAVE DISCHARGES

*Gus Van Weert1 and Yeonuk Choi2 ORETOME Limited 16668 Humber Station Road Caledon East, Canada L7E 0Z1 (*Corresponding author: oretome@sympatico.ca)
2 1

BARRICK Gold Corporation 3700-161 Bay Street Toronto, Canada M5J 2S1 ABSTRACT

In the spring of 2010 double refractory ores from historical stockpiles were processed through Barrick's Goldstrike pressure oxidation facility, thereby providing preg robbing feeds for a variety of metallurgical testwork. This paper describes the effects of amount, type, place and time of addition of activated carbons on CIL gold recovery and shows that native carbon in plant POX'ed discharge solids can still preg rob gold loaded activated carbon.

INTRODUCTION Carbon-In-Leach (CIL) has been a great success treating mildly preg robbing gold ores, but the technology is still challenged by severely preg robbing feedstocks. Little process information is available in the gold milling literature on CIL gold extraction from free gold ores which are preg robbing, or on autoclave (POXed) slurries of double refractory ores. Neither feedstock is readily available for experimentation, for different reasons. Single refractory, i.e. deposits with free gold and severely preg robbing carbonaceous constituents, are likely bypassed for exploitation. Gold recovery is too problematic. Double refractory ores are generally treated in roasters, in which the carbonaceous material is oxidized. No literature reference could be found describing deliberate modifications to CIL operations or circuits due to the presence of two types of carbon: native and activated. In this paper, the term native carbon indicates (severely) preg robbing carbonaceous materials found in gold ores. The term Total Carbonaceous Matter (TCM) reports all organic carbon and includes the preg robbing native carbon. The advantage of using the CIL process for preg robbing ores over the Carbon-in-Pulp (CIP) process is based on the concept that activated carbon has a stronger affinity for gold cyanide than native carbon [1]. Solubilized gold cyanide is rapidly adsorbed by the activated carbon present and stays adsorbed. Gold which gets adsorbed on native carbon is subsequently desorbed by the superior man-made carbon. These concepts are hard to prove, however. Not only is there a great variety in the preg robbing character of TCMs, but milling of the gold ores may also effect changes. For instance, it has been reported that autoclaving under certain conditions (acidic, fine grind, high temperature [2]) will deactivate native carbon and allow improved CIL gold recoveries, but how either the former or the latter is achieved for severely preg robbing TCMs has not been elaborated. Smearing of carbon on other ore constituents can also result in preg robbing behaviour [3]. It is also well known that activated carbon loses activity in CIL/CIP circuits; this may be aggravated by the release of organics during autoclaving, as well as the counter current nature of CIL/CIP - as will be discussed later. There is considerable literature on the preg robbing ability of activated carbons, more commonly referred to as their activity. Various tests have been devised to measure this activity, commensurate with CIP and CIL practises [4]. These tests are comparative, i.e. relative to a standard carbon and depend on the test methodology and carbon history. Their results are of limited value; most carbons are not loaded to capacity anyway. Information on abrasion resistance or gold adsorption kinetics of activated carbon may be far more important. There are no satisfactory tests for measuring the preg robbing ability of native carbonaceous materials in gold ores. Contact of a fixed amount of ground ore with gold cyanide bearing solutions and measuring gold depletion from these solutions as a function of time is used to quantify preg robbing. One big problem in defining preg robbing in such gold cyanide spiking tests is the unknown dissolution of gold from the ore itself. Another problem is that some gold cyanide adsorbed on native carbon can later be recovered by contact with activated carbon, some cannot. Some can even be washed out of the ore with water and the term preg borrowing has been coined for this behaviour [5]. This multitude of factors prevents any preg robbing test result to be absolute. Also, the native carbon generally cannot be segregated from the ore by mineral dressing, hence the distribution of gold in a CIL circuit between ore solids, liquor and carbon species becomes guesswork around the rate of gold cyanide solubilisation, and the preg robbing and activity/time parameters of the carbons in the system. This means that in designing CIL circuits for specific ore feeds, careful testwork is a necessity. Modelling will not work, although attempts are ongoing using parameter and correlation simplifications [6]. At Goldstrike, the supply of sulphidic, non-carbonaceous ore is dwindling after over a quarter century of production, leaving double refractory ore as the ultimate local feedstock for the autoclave facility. It was therefore decided to review the interaction between native and activated carbon in a CIL circuit, interaction which is generally described as competition for gold cyanide. However, the nature of this competition is not clear. Is it based on equilibria, or on kinetics? Or both? This paper describes testwork attempting to elucidate this interaction by experimental means, i.e. gold cyanide extraction / adsorption tests on two Goldstrike Plant autoclave oxidized ore

samples (#1: mild- and #2: medium-preg robbing), followed by benchtop testwork on a very refractory Goldstrike ore sample (BR-22). Scouting work on extruded peat and coconut carbons was also carried out and has been reported on [7]. Feedstocks: Goldstrike Poxed Sample #1 and #2 As already mentioned, two different samples of autoclave discharge slurries were made available to explore various CIL concepts and configurations. Whereas the feedstocks to the Goldstrike autoclaves were double refractory, the POXed slurries may be labelled as single refractory, i.e. preg robbing, having over 90% of the sulphides oxidized. The following summarizes some of the relevant properties. The particle size analysis by wet screening is shown in Figure 1 for Goldstrike sample #2. That acidic POX discharge sample with a P80 of 151 m was coarser than the #1 discharge sample with a P80 of 112 m. Representative samples were assayed for gold, the sulphur suite, the carbon suite and by ICP. Results for the head samples are given in Table 1. Table 1- Goldstrike feed assay Au Sample GS autoclave discharge #2 (May 10) GS autoclave discharge #1 (March 10) g/t 3.00 SO42% 1.08 S2% 0.05 Ctotal % 0.63 Corg % 0.59 CO32% 0.20 pH 1.4

2.87

1.33

0.22

0.61

0.56

0.25

2.5

The assay results indicate that there was little difference between the #1 and #2 acidic POX discharges except for the sulfide level. Sample #1 had a slightly higher sulfide content of 0.22%, suggesting the sulfide oxidation was incomplete. This, and the coarse grind may have locked up some gold and lowered the CIL gold recovery. Higher gold grades were found in the -37 m fractions. The majority of gold, organic carbon and sulfide was distributed in this fine size fraction.
5 Gold Grade (g/t) 4 3 2 1 0 +150 +105, - +75, - 105 +53, -75 +45, -53 +37, -45 150 Size Fraction (microns) Au (g/t) Au (%) -37 80 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Gold Distribution (%) 70

Figure 1 GS acidic POX Discharge (Sample #2 - May 2010)

Bottle Roll Test Vs CIL of Preg Robbing Autoclave Discharges A comment on the relevancy of bottle roll tests to plant CIL results appears in order here. Bottle roll tests utilize the added carbon in a concurrent fashion, whereas a CIL circuit operates counter current. This divergence may be acceptable for regular feedstocks, but in reference to preg robbing materials the standard CIL process loads up the activated carbon with various metal cyanides and organic contaminants before the activated carbon arrives at the head tank in the circuit, where the most active carbon is needed. The head tank is also continuously fed, steadily releasing gold to the solution. This raises the soluble gold tenor, which may assist preg robbing. CIL results may not match the bottle roll ones, may in fact be lower. On the other hand, in bottle roll tests the activity of the activated carbon will have diminished after 24 hour contact with a basic liquor and even more so in contact with a slurry containing soluble decomposed organic matter from the POX treatment. This organic matter may even desorb from the native carbon during CIL. It would explain in part the relative high percentage gold solubility in the CIL filtrate in this testwork. CIL circuits load gold onto carbon to various levels; the literature quotes 300 -10,000 g Au/t. Let us assume 1000 g Au/t adsorbed from an autoclave discharge carrying 5 g/t Au after POX. At 80% gold extraction, the loaded activated carbon will have been in contact with 250 t ore solids, which may readily analyze 1% Total Carbonaceous Matter (TCM). Not all of this will be native carbon, there is also kerogen and other organics. However, one ton of activated carbon on average will at least see 2.5 t organic matter on its journey up the CIL train under these assumptions. TEST RESULTS Goldstrike ore is characterized by finely divided gold and when free, the gold is readily solubilised. This has been shown to occur for the #1 autoclave discharge material [7]. 100.0% 90.0% 80.0% 70.0% 60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0.0% 0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Au in Residue, %

Activated carbon concentration, g/l Norit 3515 AC GS loaded AC (~1230 g Au/t)

Figure 2 - Gold remaining in the CIL residues as a function of g/l activated carbon added. Each data point represents a separate (bottle rolled) 24 hour CIL test The first variable studied was the ratio of activated carbon to POXed solids, starting with the mildly preg robbing sample #1. Figure 2 gives the gold remaining in the CIL residue as a function of the activated carbon concentration in the CIL bottle roll. Increasing the concentration of activated carbon (i.e. virgin NORIT 3515) in the 24 hour CIL from 10 to 100 g/l has only a minor effect on gold recovery for this Goldstrike POX'ed material.

Nearly 100% of the gold remains in the residue in the absence of activated carbon (i.e. straight cyanide leach), testifying to the preg robbing nature of this autoclave discharge, and to the competition between native and activated carbon. Figure 2 also displays the percentage of gold remaining in the residues when the activated carbon used is the Goldstrike loaded (coconut) material. Approximately 30% more of the gold reports in the CIL residue. This higher level of gold appears not a function of the carbon to feed mass ratio, which suggests an equilibrium. The surface area of the activated carbon is not involved. More details on some of the tests are given in Table 2. Attention is drawn to the consistently high percentage of gold still in solution post-CIL. This is speculated to be the result of organics in the cyanide liquor, organics released during autoclaving of high TCM feeds. This aspect was not further investigated in this work, but led to the decision to plot test results as % of gold in CIL tails, rather than gold recovered in activated carbon. Adding the carbon after 24 hour cyanidation (when some 91% of the gold is residing in the solids) and bottle rolling the mix for another 24 hours left 34% of the gold in the #1 residue. This suggests that approximately 57% of the gold in this sample is only weakly bound to the native carbon, not a great difference from the BR-22 behaviour as observed by Schmitz et al [8]. This is graphically displayed in Figure 3, which gives the gold in the CIL residue as a function of time of AC addition. Table 2 - CIL test results on the Goldstrike autoclave discharge sample (#1) with 0, 3 and 10 times the amount of activated carbon normally used. These results are graphically displayed in Figure 3 CIL tests on the 2010 Goldstrike autoclave (acidic) discharge sample: GSAC #1 All tests used approx.280 g of solids (wet) and were given a 24 h CIL (bottle roll) at 35 wt% solids with 100 g/l and 0.5 g/l CNFresh AC (NORIT 3515) Residue Calculated head Activated carbon Gold distribution : Activated carbon Solution Residue g/l g/t Au g/t Au g/t Au % % % 7 1 5 118

Standard bottle roll (no Act. Carbon) nil 2.05 2.3 n/a nil 9.1 90.9

Standard bottle roll CIL 10 .62 2.6 121.3 72.2 4.1 23.8

Bottle roll CIL, 3x AC 30 .52 2.8 46.52 74.6 6.9 18.5

Bottle roll CIL, 10x AC 100 .48 2.9 11.2 77.4 6.0 16.6

The results for the more preg robbing GS autoclave discharge #2 are also incorporated in Figure 3. It is clear that this second sample is more preg robbing, but otherwise similar to #1. In these two autoclave discharge samples some of the gold becomes irreversible bound to the native carbon, but most can be desorbed with virgin activated carbon. This irreversible gold cyanide adsorption appears to slowly increase with time. All this suggests a CIL treatment to be preferred over a CIP one.

60.0% 50.0% Au in Residu, % 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0.0% 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 Addition of NORIT 3515 (10g/l) to bottle roll CIL, hours after CIL start GS Autoclave discharge 2 GS autoclave discharge 1

Figure 3 - Gold remaining in the CIL residues when delaying the carbon addition by 2, 6 and 24 hours. Please note that in the case of the 24 hour delay, the residue was bottle rolled for another 24 hours The extraction as a function of activated carbon concentration was repeated with discharge sample #2 and the results are graphically displayed in Figure 4. When using virgin Norit 3515, the gold remaining in the residue is more or less what can be expected: the line runs parallel, but slightly above the one plotted for residue #1 in Figure 2. No test series was run with GS virgin carbon, but its behaviour is not expected to be different. The interesting behaviour is displayed by the loaded GS (coconut) carbon. Instead of running parallel to the NORIT 3515 line, it appears that the plant loaded carbon gives up gold to the autoclave discharge solids. This is further explored in the subsequent section of this paper. There also appears to be a minimum at 10 g activated carbon per litre, which suggests competing adsorbing / desorbing mechanisms at play for loaded activated carbons. 160.0% 140.0% Au in residue, % 120.0% 100.0% 80.0% 60.0% 40.0% 20.0% 0.0% 0 10 20 30 40 50 60

GS virgin AC, spiked

GS - CIL loaded

Norit 3515, virgin

70 80 90 100

Carbon concentration, g/l (added at start of bottle roll CIL) Norit 3515 AC added @ beginning GS loaded AC GS spiked virgin AC

Figure 4 - Au in autoclave discharge #2 vs amount of carbon, after CIL When virgin GS carbon was spiked with gold cyanide to approximately 1000 g/t and used in this delayed carbon addition type test with autoclave discharge #2, results were even more interesting. Instead of performing

better than the plant loaded carbon, it desorbed even more vigorously, yielding residues with more gold than the CIL feed. Also, the minimum at 10 g activated carbon per liter remained. The Successive use of Two Different Carbons It was decided to carry out another series of experiments where the same autoclave discharge solid was successively contacted with different carbons. A regular bottle roll test was carried out, but after 24 hours a small solids sample was taken, the activated carbon was screened out of the bulk sample, and replaced with another type of carbon for a second 24 hour bottle roll. Both autoclave discharge #1 and #2 were tested, as well as benchtop POXed BR22, which is known to be very preg robbing. The test matrix is given in the following Table 3. Two levels of activated carbon addition were explored (10 and 30 g/l). The results are consistent with earlier findings for all three feeds: loaded carbons will raise the gold content of the CIL tails, more with more carbon and more for the more preg robbing solids. Table 3 - Bottle roll CIL results for two successive 24 hour tests on the same autoclave discharge solids. CIL tests on the Sample #1 Sample #2 BR-22 (-200m) 2010 Goldstrike (Head grade approx. (Head grade approx. (POXed at autoclave 2.8 g Au/ t) 3.4g Au /t) PROrtech) discharge: Approx. 3.4 g Au/t Test #, GSAC 34 39 53 26 35 36 154 155 Act carbon, NORIT GS GS NORIT GS GS GS NORIT 1st 24 h, type: virgin virgin loaded virgin virgin loaded virgin virgin Act. carbon g/l Residue, 24 h, g/t Au Gold on act. carbon, g/t Act. carbon, 2nd 24h, type: Act. carbon g/l Residue, 48 h, g/t Au Gold on act. carbon, g/t 30 10 10 30 30 10 10 10

0.59 n/a GS loaded 30

0.75 82.7 GS loaded 10

1.22 1290 NORIT virgin 10

0.95 37.9 GS loaded 30

1.03 30.8 GS loaded 30

2.33 1330 GS virgin 10

2.71 17.2 GS loaded 10

2.66 28.1 GS loaded 10

1.62 1260

0.93 1320

0.83 27.1

2.57 1210

2.70 1320

1.48 48.7

3.39 1330

3.29 n/a

Gold Distribution in Loaded Carbon, by Particle, in the CIL Head Tank at Goldstrike If loaded carbon gives up gold to the native carbon in the ore, then the question of short circuiting in the CIL circuit becomes relevant. To prevent carbon attrition, carbon is normally moved from tank to tank by pumping part of the ore slurry forward to the head tank. This could result in a flat residence time curve. Some carbon particles arriving into the head tank could well contain more than double the average gold content. This might be detrimental when processing preg robbing materials. It was decided to obtain a sample of the Goldstrike head tank loaded carbon, dry the carbon immediately on site to prevent migration of gold between wet carbon particles and assay individual carbon particles for gold content. In our companion paper, the selection procedure is described in more detail and results for 14 particles are presented there. This paper gives the results for 50 carbon particles in Figure 5, which also shows the results for 25 particles of Goldstrike virgin carbon, spiked in the laboratory to approximately 1000 g/t carbon. Although a suite of 25 samples is too small to draw final conclusions, it appears that the spread in gold loading for GS loaded carbon is (much) larger than for the spiked virgin GS carbon. This implies a reasonable range of activity for gold cyanide adsorption for individual virgin coconut particles (a factor 2 from

lowest to highest loading). If this is confirmed by processing a larger sample (in progress at time of writing), then the much larger spread of the loaded GS carbon (a factor of >5) is probably caused by short circuiting in the CIL circuit. 12 Number of carbon particles per tranche 10 8 6 4 2 0

Au (g/t) GS loaded AC (49 particles) GS virgin AC (spiked, 25 particles)

Figure 5 - Distribution of activated carbon (AC) particles by gold content Interaction of BR-22 Preg-robbing Ore with Norit 3515 Activated Carbon; CIL or CIP? Unlike the relationship between gold cyanide and activated carbon, little has been written on the gold cyanide uptake of native carbon. This is not too surprising; it is hard to get samples of native carbon, of which there have been said exist many types. For instance, Schmitz et al [8] isolated native carbon from four Goldstrike type ores by assuming that no alterations of the surface occurred due to the isolation process, it was observed that adsorption and desorption rates differed depending on the contact time between carbon and solution. For BR-22 material, for instance, one third of the gold could not be desorbed by a barren solution of otherwise the same composition as the loading one (2.0 g/l NaCN, pH= 10.8 at approx. 23C). The loading of gold in these experiments by Schmitz et al with BR-22 is given as 35,000 g/tonne native carbon from a 10 ppm gold solution. This raises the question how much gold can actually be loaded on native carbon versus activated carbon. The organic carbon in that BR-22 material reported at 3.8wt%, which suggests that the Schmitz et al sample would have loaded to 1330 g/t ore in a 10 ppm gold solution. Its maximum loading may be higher but that is moot; BR-22s native carbon can readily adsorb all gold in the ore (approx. 3 g/t). One drum of BR-22 material was received at Process Research Ortech (PRO) in late 2009, were crushed and ground down to minus 20 mesh (840 microns) and split into 1 kg lots for feed to the grinding mill and subsequent testing. A single blank 1 hour POX test with a 24 hour CIL yielded 34% Au recovery in the Activated Carbon plus barren solution. A series of 4 tests were conducted investigating the effect of trying to desorb aurocyanide from the pregrobbing native carbon onto fresh, dry or soaked, Norit 3515 activated carbon. Sodium cyanide concentrations were varied and amounts of activated carbon addition were also varied. BR-22 ore was autoclaved and bottle rolled for 24 hours in 0.5 g/l CN at pH=10.5 to give the gold cyanide the opportunity to adsorb on the native carbon. The slurry was then split into four equal parts and each part further bottle rolled for 2 hours in contact with various carbon and CN- concentrations. Test conditions and results are tabulated in Table 4. Once the gold (auro-cyanide) is

adsorbed on the preg-robbing native carbon of BR-22, even virgin (Norit 3515) activated carbon will not desorb it (fly paper model?). Table 4 - Dry ground 100% minus 200 mesh BR-22, autoclaved under standard POX conditions, bottle rolled for 24 hours in pH=10.5, 0.50 NaCN g/l, split into four equal portions of slurry each holding 77 g (wet cake), and each portion bottle rolled for another 2 hours under conditions given in this table Cyanide adjusted to : 0.5 g/l 5.0 g/l 0.5 g/l 5.0 g/l 10 g/l, dry NORIT 3515 added Gold distribution, %: Activated carbon Solution BR-22 residue 0.3 0.0 99.7 0.4 0.0 99.6 0.8 0.0 99.2 2.5 0.0 97.5 10 g/l, water soaked 30 g/l, dry 30 g/l, water soaked

A further series of tests was run to gain more understanding of the preg robbing nature of BR-22. The results are summarized in Table 5. A standard bottle roll CIL left 66% of the gold in the residue. When the cyanide is added in stages, we get a worse result: only 3.8% of the gold is adsorbed by the carbon (Test 119). If the staged cyanide addition indeed lowered the gold concentration in solution by slowing the gold solubilisation, it had no effect on gold recovery to activated carbon. Adding activated carbon later in the bottle roll test 2 hours past the cyanidation start, results in 86% of the gold remaining in the residue (versus 66% for carbon added at start). Only 1.9% of the gold distributes to the activated carbon. This can be explained by assuming that the gold cyanide entering the solution the first two hours through leaching would be irreversibly preg robbed by the native carbon in BR-22. The fly-paper model is further supported by the results of POX 121. In this test, gold approximately equivalent to that in the feed was spiked as cyanide to the CIL slurry, and the AC was also added after a two hour delay. Approximately 2/3 of the spiked gold was retained by the POX-ed BR-22 solids. Even when adding 3 times the normal amount of activated carbon at the start of the CIL, 62.7% of the gold in the BR-22 still reported in the residue, suggesting that the activity of the preg-robbing native carbon in BR-22 exceeds that of Norit 3515 (Test POX #120). This led to two further tests: POX 133 and 140, the former using 100+200 mesh crushed and screened Norit AC. It gave the lowest CIL residue value in the series, although there were issues with the gold balance due to 200 mesh fines in the -100+200 mesh carbon. Test 140 aimed at deactivating the native carbon using spent motor oil, but that single attempt made only a marginal difference on gold remaining in the residue. All tests reported in Table 5 used 350 g of 100% minus 200 mesh dry ground, single lot BR-22. Pressure oxidation, i.e. autoclave POX was 2 h duration (exc. # 117: 1h) at 225 C, at 35wt% solids. The CIL bottle roll lasted 24 h, at 0.5 g/l CN- , with 10 g/l activated carbon addition (AC: virgin NORIT 3515).

POX test #

117 Standard: Added AC, CNat start of bottle roll CIL 2.277 3.4 43.78

Residue, g/t Au Calculated head, g/t Au Activated carbon, g/t Au Gold distribution :

Table 5 POX tests on BR-22 118 119 120 121 Added Added Added Added AC 2h 1/3rd of 3x AuCN* after NaCN amount at start start of at 0, 2 of AC of CIL, bottle and 4h vs carbon roll into standard at 2h CIL CIL 3.08 2.882 1.972 5.399 3.6 3.46 3.4 8.29 3.1 14.48 n/a 58.26 67% of spike Au went to CIL residue

122 Added preloaded AC at start of CIL 4.575 n/a 985.8 10% of Au in AC went to CIL residue

133 Added -100 +200 mesh AC at start of CIL 1.69 2.7 21.5**

140 Added emulsified SMO*** before start of CIL 2.07 3.4 51.6

Activated carbon 26.4 1.9 3.8 28.4 27 32.3 % Solution 7.5 11.7 10.4 8.9 11 5.9 % Residue 66.0 86.4 85.8 62.7 62 61.8 % * AuCN in spike approx. equivalent to gold in feed. ** The AC contained some coarse residue due to separation issues; actual AC assay approx. 30 g Au/t carbon *** SMO = Spent Motor Oil

DISCUSSION The objective of the work described in this paper, and its companion paper, was to shed light on the competition for gold cyanide between native and activated carbon, with particular reference to acidicly autoclaved Goldstrike ores. A mild preg robbing ore, after POX (sample #1, still retaining 90% of its gold in cyanidation without activated carbon present), will retain 20 -25% of its gold in the CIL residue when a very active (virgin) activated carbon is used in a concurrent CIL (bottle roll). With a finer grind this loss could be lower. The question arises whether such a material can be labeled preg robbing. Processing with current technology is possible, but would require lower carbon loadings and therefore higher regeneration tonnages and costs. When the testwork is repeated with a more preg robbing autoclave discharge (#2), we find that even a very active activated carbon will lose 35 - 40% of the gold to the residue, and only when present from the start of the concurrent bottle roll cyanide leach. Should the virgin carbon be added later, as in CIP mode, 45 50% of the gold will remain in the residue. Using Goldstrike plant loaded carbon leaves 60% of the gold in the residue at best, and up to 85% when such loaded carbon is added in excess. The relationship between adsorption and desorption mechanisms is not clear. Transfer of gold from loaded activated carbon to all three POXed ore solids could readily be demonstrated by contacting the same batch of slurried material with two different carbons, in two successive 24 hour tests. When testing a severely preg robbing autoclave discharge (benchtop POXed BR-22) with an active carbon, 80% of the gold remains in the residue. It is strongly bound to the native carbon; more activated carbon and more cyanide could not dislodge the gold at room temperature. All this raised the question of short circuiting in CIL circuits and whether gold is principally lost from higher loaded carbon particles resulting from such short circuiting. This in turn led to the question of activated

carbon homogeneity; i.e. is gold cyanide adsorbed equally by all particles? This subject was explored by assaying individual particles of activated carbon from the Goldstrike CIL circuit, and particles which were derived from spiking virgin Goldstrike carbon to approximately the same gold loading. The assays obtained with the latter material varied from 600 to 1800 g Au/t AC, i.e. by a factor of 3, whereas the loaded carbon varied from < 400 to 2400 g Au/t AC, a factor of 6. This points in the direction of short circuiting being a major factor, although caution must be exercised in drawing firm conclusions. The loaded carbon from the Goldstrike operations must have been subjected to a range of additional process conditions compared to the spiked virgin carbon and the sample size is very small. Work is continuing on the questions raised in the beginning of this paragraph. Concluding, maintaining high gold recoveries by CIL cyanidation from preg robbing autoclave discharges derived from Carlin trend ores requires means to reduce the preg robbing activity of native carbon, or the use of a more active activated carbon. Regarding the latter, crushing activated carbon to a smaller size fraction gave encouraging results, even with BR-22. Reduction to practice of this alternative remains elusive.

REFERENCES 1. http://www.denvermineral.com/basicp~1.html. The Basic Processes of Gold Recovery, p8. No author G.L. Simmons, Method for Treating Mineral Material having Organic Carbon to Facilitate Recovery of Gold and Silver, US Patent, No. 5,536,480, 1996. J.S.J. van Deventer, H. Tan, D. Feng and G.C. Lukey, The Behaviour of Carbonaceous Matter in Gold Extraction, 44th Annual Conf. of Metallurgists of CIM, Treatment of Gold Ores, G. Deschenes, D. Hodouin and L. Lorenzen, Calgary, Canada, 2005, 111-125. D. Tretbar, Preg-Robbing Carbon in the Processing of Gold-Bearing Ores: Definitions, Analytical Methodology and Characterization, Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs, 2004, Vol.36, No. 4, 23. M.I. Brittan, Kinetic and Equilibrium Effects in Gold Ore Cyanidation, Minerals & Metallurgical Processing, Vol. 25, No. 3, 2008, 117-122. L.R.P. de Andrade Lima, Dynamic Simulation of the Carbon-in-pulp and Carbon-in-leach processes, Braz. J. Chem. Eng., Vol. 24, No. 4, 2007, 623-635. G. Van Weert and Y. Choi, The Limitations of Activated Carbon in CIL Circuits Handling Preg Robbing Solids, CIM Journal, in Press, 2011. P.A. Schmitz, S. Duyvesteyn, W.P. Johnson, L. Enloe and J. McMullen, Adsorption of Aurocyanide Complexes onto carbonaceous Matter from Preg-robbing Goldstrike Ore, Hydrometallurgy 61, 2001, 121-135.

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