Abstract:

The pretreatment method based on catalytic pressure in neutral conditions was used for leaching gold and copper concentrates. The results suggested that 99.4% of Cu could be leached out from gold and copper concentrates when temperature was 180℃, partial pressure of oxygen was 1.8 MPa and amount of catalyst was 0.14 mol/L. The total of Fe was only 3.52 g/L in leachate, which was beneficial to recovery of Cu in the follow-up process. In the residue, 98.2% of Au and 90.3% of Ag could be leached out by chloride leaching gold process. The pretreatment process was straightforward and the environmental benefits.

Key words: gold and copper concentrates, neutral catalytic pressure leaching, pretreatment process