Different Gold Mining Processes for the Five Types of Gold Ore

01Poor sulfide gold mining process

This kind of gold ore is mostly quartz vein type gold ore, also includes multiplex-quartzite and fine vein disseminated type. The sulfide content is little, mostly pyrite. In some cases, this gold ore is associated with copper, lead, zinc, tungsten, molybdenum and so on. The natural gold size in such ores is relatively large. Gold is the only object to be recovered, other elements or minerals have no industrial value or can only be recovered as by-products. Using the single froth flotation process or all-slime cyanidation process (CIP process or CIL process) can obtain higher indexes.

02Polysulfide gold mining process

There are rich pyrite and arsenopyrite in this kind of gold ore, which is also be recycled with the gold. The gold grade is low, the natural gold grain is relatively small, and is mostly wrapped in pyrite. It is generally easier to separate gold from sulfide by the froth flotation process. But the separation between gold and sulfide needs the combined mining process, otherwise, the gold mining process indexes won't be too high.

03The gold-bearing polymetallic mining process

There are copper, copper-lead, lead-zinc-silver, tungsten-antimony and other metal minerals in this kind of gold ore except for the gold. All of them have the value of separate mining. For this kind of gold ore, it contains a considerable amount of sulfide (10~20%), the natural gold is closely symbiotic with pyrite, copper, lead and other minerals. The natural gold is inlaid with uneven thickness and the length of grain size varies. And there are many kinds of minerals that can be utilized. Therefore, this kind of gold ore processing generally adopts more complex gold mining processes for separation.

04Gold telluride containing gold mining process

Gold is still abundant in the form of natural gold, but much of it occurs in gold tellurides. This ore is mostly low-temperature hydrothermal deposits and gangue rocks are quartz, chalamite quartz and carbonate minerals.

05Gold and copper containing ore mining process

The difference between this kind of gold ore and the third kind of gold ore is that gold has a low grade, but can be used as one of the main comprehensive utilization elements. The natural gold in the ore is medium size and the symbiotic relationship between gold and other minerals is complex. For this kind of gold mining process, most of the gold is concentrated in copper concentrate and the gold is recovered during copper smelting.

Here are the gold mining processes used in five types of gold ore. It is suggested that each owner shall carry on the mineral processing test to determine the specific gold mining process flow, so as to obtain the best mineral processing indexes and economic benefit.