What kind of carbonate minerals depression is preferrable for Au-bearing sulfides flotation (may be reverse flotation?) for such an ore:
- quartz - 10-30%
- feldspar (orthoclase) - 5-40%
- clay&mica - 20-30%
- Fe-dolomite&ankerite - 5-60% (!)
- FeS2 - 1-8%
- FeAsS - 0,5-3%
- AsS - 0,2-2%
- ZnS - 0,1-4%
- PbS - 0,1-1%
Gold is mainly assotiated with Py and AsPy. There are also 0,5-5,0 mkm particles of electrum. Any advice for effective modern reagents?
Is it a Carlin type gold deposit? Looks like you have a tricky case, as it is called "refractory" gold. You could hope to recover the 0,5-5,0 mkm particles of electrum with ordinary methods but to get the "invisible gold" part you have to dissolve Py and AsPy. As I am geologist; I don´t know the mining-metallurgical terminology like "carbonate minerals depression"; "sulfides reverse flotation". It looks like you have to separate your sulfides from silicates and carbonates using the density approach. If your Fe-carbonate is mixed with Au sulfides, why not just to acidify and heat everything together and let the CO2 go? In terms of reactant... what do you mean "preferable": cheap, nature friendly or efficient? Between those three preferences is an ocean of logistic calculations and local laws specificity: it is not evident to find an optimum (that is always neither cheap nor nature friendly, but something in between). Please, keep us informed what you have finally chosen. You could try to ask Filippov Lev from Nancy GeoRessources laboratory (Universite de Lorraine, France). Looks like he knows everything about flotation.
I have just discovered that he is your coauthor, so... at least you know already the person.
Maria, danke dir für deine Überlegungen! Ich kenne Lev Odysseyevich seit 20. Jahrhundert, noch von der Universität. Es scheint, muss ich ihn wirklich zu diesem Thema beiziehen.
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