Stabilizing Agglomerated Slimes For Cyanide Leaching (284b1609-92e5-4e66-9040-d4ffad390a57)

THE leaching method that was first widely used with the cyanide process consisted of percolation leaching of crushed ore in vats or leaching tanks. It was frequently necessary to separate the sand for cyanide treatment and discard the slimes, because only granular material allows the necessary amount of solution to percolate through it in a reasonable time. Later a slime process consisting of agitation followed by thickening and filtration was developed, and is extensively used to the present day. Even though the agitation-leaching slime process is considered satisfactory, the cost of plant and of operation are both greater than for a percolation-leaching plant of equal capacity. This situation has been recognized in the hydrometallurgical treatment of copper-bearing slimes; and a considerable amount of work has been done at the Southwest Experiment Station of the U. S. Bureau of Mines in an effort to develop a percolation method of treating slimes. Experimental work on the copper-leaching problem was started by H. E. Keyes1, and later tests were made by J. D. Sullivan and A. P. Towne2. The Bureau of Mines work resulted in the development of a process by which slimes were moisture-agglomerated with sand and crushed ore, to form a permeable mass through which solution could be trickled without breaking down the glomerules. The agglomeration trickle-leaching method was developed on a small scale and finally tried out in a 12-ton vat. Successful results were obtained as long as the leach solution was added slowly, so that the agglomerated charge was never flooded. If the leach solution flooded the charge, the glomerules broke down and the charge became impervious. There are two important difficulties in the application of the agglomeration trickle-leaching method to the cyanide process for gold and silver ores: