Recovery of Gold by Precipitation
According to MineEngineer.com, zinc dust can recover gold from a cyanide solution by precipitation, the basis of the Merrill Crowe process. C.W. Merrill and T.B. Crowe improved the basic process in the early 1900s. The mining industry typically employs this process to recover gold after extraction.
Other People Are Reading
-
Cyanidation
-
The mining industry uses cyanide to leach or extract gold from ore because gold dissolves readily in cyanide, according to GoldAvenue.com. A precipitation process then separates the gold from the cyanide solution.
Zinc Dust
-
A fine zinc dust is added to the cyanide-gold solution. The zinc has a greater affinity for the cyanide and reacts with it, leaving the gold behind as a precipitate. The solution is then filtered to separate out the gold solids, according to MineEngineer.com.
-
Toxicity
-
The zinc dust precipitation method has hazards associated with the toxicity of cyanide. According to MineEngineer.com, the industry has tried other chemicals to extract gold from ore, but cyanide remains the most effective.
-
