Recuperación de oro a través de la aplicación de procesos de extracción metalúrgica de material de mina de la concesión minera Señor de la Esperanza, cantón Catamayo provincia de Loja

Abstract

Abstract: The study focused on the recovery of gold through metallurgical extraction processes of the Señor de la Esperanza mine, in Catamayo, province of Loja. Combining methods experimental; laboratory tests and the analysis of the results obtained could be propose a more suitable extraction process. The samples were prepared by fragmentation, crushing, homogenization and grinding. Then, they were characterized by granulometric analysis, relative density, chemical analysis, mineralogical and analysis microscopic where it was determined that there is free gold in the sample. Two processes were carried out concentration: gravimetric concentration with the Knelson KC-MD3 equipment resulted in a recovery of 35.2%, while cyanidation proved to be more effective, achieving a gold recovery of 71.3% in 12 hours. The critical factors for the success of the cyanidation, highlighting the stabilization of the cyanide concentrate, the maintenance of pH between 11 and 11.5 and the addition of 1 g/L of cyanide. Although the Knelson gold-quartz separation was efficient, cyanidation demonstrated greater efficiency, so when Combining both methods could optimize gold recovery in mining processes. mineral recovery.