Solid Phase Extraction Method for the Recovery of Gold from the Cyanide Solutions

Abstract

In this work, a new method for the recovery of gold from the cyanide solution with graphitized carbon black as sorbent was studied. The recovery of gold was preformed by passing the cyanide solution through the graphitized carbon black cartridge and eluted the absorbed gold from the cartridge with 2.0 mol L^-1 thiourea solution as eluant. An enrichment factor of 320 was achieved and the routine ion (Ag, Ni, Cu, Zn, Fe, Co) do not interfered with the gold recovery. The absorption capacity was calculated to be 32 mg g^-1 for the gold standard solution and 24 mg g^-1 for the industrial gold cyanide leaching solution. This method can be applied to the recovery of gold from real industrial gold cyanide solution with good results.