The carbon blanking reagent Dehscofix DG30, developed by Innospec, helps improve the efficiency of gold leaching in CIL and CIP circuits.
For us at Haarla, it is important not only to supply high-quality raw materials, but also help our customers optimize their processes and reach better efficiency. Together with the global specialty chemical company Innospec, we offer innovative and easy-to-use solutions for our customers in the mining and metal extraction industry. Our hydrometallurgy product range includes Innospec’s water-soluble carbon blanking agent Dehscofix DG30, developed to reach optimal gold recovery in CIL/CIP-leaching processes.
No gold should go to waste
With the price of gold forecast to continue rising and the times of discovering large gold nuggets seemingly over, the gold mining and extraction industry is facing new challenges. In recently discovered deposits, gold tends to be present in lower grade, while the reserves often also have a more complex mineralogy. In these circumstances, it is important to fine-tune the processes to prevent gold from going to waste. The gold leaching process (CIL/CIP) is vulnerable to so called preg-robbing – a phenomenon where microscopic carbon particles, naturally present in the ore, “rob” some of the cyanide-gold complex and prevent it from traveling down the extraction process. To solve this problem, Innospec has developed a carbon blanking reagent, Dehscofix DG30.
The problem…
When gold is extracted from the ore in the cyanidation process, pellets of activated carbon are added to the tanks. The gold attaches itself to the activated carbon until the pellets are fully loaded and can be collected. These pellets then travel forward in the process and the gold is extracted from them. However, the microscopic carbon particles – either residue from the activated carbon or naturally present in carbonaceous gold ore – also attract gold. These microscopic particles are too small to be separated from the ore to be recovered, thus resulting in gold loss, also called preg-robbing.
…and the solution.
To mitigate the preg-robbing issue, Innospec has developed the non-flammable carbon blanking agent Dehscofix DG30. Using DG30 allows the gold-cyanide complex to attach preferentially to activated carbon pellets instead of the microscopic carbon particles, thus improving the gold recovery rate and preventing gold loss. DG30 saturates the tiny preg-robbing carbon particles so that they no longer adsorb the gold-cyanide complex. The DG30 carbon blanking agent is water-soluble and easy to apply. It is added to the slurry before pH adjustment. The agent can get adsorbed to the preg-robbing carbon completely, without any excess left in the final solution traveling forward in the process.
Testing and tailoring
In addition to supplying chemicals for hydrometallurgy, we also want to help our customers reach optimized processes. Mineral samples from our customers can be tested at Innospec’s laboratories, enabling tailored improvements and better efficiency.
At Haarla, we always want to help our customers make good choices. Haarla is the official supplier of Innospec in Finland and the Nordic countries, as well as in the Eurasian CIS-countries. If you want to discuss improving the efficiency of your metal extraction process, the Haarla experts in our Enviro team are at your service. We also offer a wide range of different types of activated carbon, suitable for example for the CIL circuits.
Contact us for more information!
