Mineragraphic evaluation for gold recovery

Abstract

Minerals processed in a mining-metallurgical plant are subject to constant change related to the degree of exploitation of the deposit. This behavior is distinguished by the shift in the mineralogical species present within the mineral that enters the processing plant; these changes can produce deficiencies in the beneficiation of the mineral and the recovery of precious metals. For this reason, this work seeks to determine a relationship between the species present and the metallurgical processes such as gravimetric analysis, flotation, and leaching used to recover the gold present in the deposit, based on the mineragraphy and the metallurgical tests of the minerals extracted from the Inkaracay and Mina Sanca 2 veins, deposits located in the Qero's batholith. It has veins of 15 to 20 cm and 5 to 8 g/T Au, for this reason, three mixtures of different proportions were used for their analysis. Mineral characterization determines the mineralogical relationship of the samples, the microscopic and macroscopic study present in the mineral body and the mineralogical associations in the analyzed samples, allowing them to be related to the performance of the metallurgical tests thus obtaining a recovery of 95.54% of gold: 36% from the Inkaracay vein and 64% from the Mina Sanca 2 vein using the flotation process at a grain size of 85% -200m (74 µm).