Process for Recovering Gold

Overview:

McGill University is seeking to out-license intellectual property pertaining to a novel process for
recovering gold from refractory gold or copper/gold ores, that is, ores in which gold is partially or
completely encapsulated or locked within a mineral rendering the leaching process complex and
inefficient. The technology enables a direct (one-step) cyanide-free process to recover gold from
refractory gold pressure oxidation and copper pressure leaching reactors-autoclaves. The process
relies on the formation of an aurochloride complex in the presence of activated carbon in an
autoclave, thereby obviating the need for cyanide.

The Need:

Refractory gold ore pretreatment operations continue to attract attention as surface oxide ores are
near depletion and deep seated sulphide deposits are increasingly encountered. Refractory ores
are difficult to process as are copper-gold feedstocks hence recovery from these types of gold-
bearing raw materials can be low. On the other hand conventional treatment of the oxidized gold-
bearing residue by cyanidation becomes progressively unattractive because of safety concerns
associated with the handling and transportation of cyanide. In addition cyanidation of copper-gold
ores at intermediate temperatures imposes additional challenges due to undesirable
reaction/consumption of cyanide with elemental sulphur.

Advantages:
 No cyanidation required.
 Elimination of the secondary gold leaching plant (typically carbon-in pulp-CIP cyanidation) which is
costly in water consumption and energy.
 Process enables up to 98% Au recovery on experimental scale .
Inventors: Demopoulos, G. P. and Parisien-LaSalle, J-C

Profile:

Dr. George Demopoulos

Professor; Department of Mining and Materials Engineering
PhD Metallurgical Engineering; McGill University
MSc. Metallurgical Engineering; McGill University
DiplEng Mining and Metallurgical Engineering; National Technical University of Athens

Research:
Aqueous processing of inorganic materials; Unit operations in hydrometallurgy; Environmentally clean
technologies; Cells for solar energy conversion and storage; Aqueous precipitation and crystallization
Electrochemical deposition and corrosion; Preparation of particulate materials and mesoporous films.

Katya Marc M.Eng., MB

Office of Sponsored Research
McGill University
Tel: 514-398-3355
Email: katya.marc@mcgill.ca
Reference code: 11044
Opportunity: exclusive license or research collaboration