Gold recovery by galvanic stripping of an anionic organic extractant

Abstract

The galvanic stripping technique for metal recovery uses commercial organic extractants containing a metal to be recovered. The organic phase is placed in contact with a solid metal reducer that allows electrochemical reactions to occur. One product of these reactions is a metal layer deposited on the surface of the reducer consisting of reduced species desorbed from the organic phase. Another product is metal ions from the reducer adsorbed onto the organic phase. This work presents results for gold recovery by galvanic stripping of strong-base anionic extractants of a quaternary amine salt, ALIQUAT336®, in xylene using solid zinc as the metal reducer. The parameters studied were contact time for the organic phase containing gold and the samples of the reducing zinc metal, temperature of the system, gold concentration in the organic phase and type of stirring used in the galvanic stripping system. Experiments showed results higher than 28% of gold recovery and an adherent film of gold on the zinc surface. The Arrhenius plot for gold recovery from the organic extractant suggests a change in the rate- controlling step from mixed control to diffusion control with increasing temperature in the range of 20 to 50ºC