Studies of the leaching behavior of a nontoxic gold lixiviant with butanedionedioxime-oxidants

In this paper a new leaching system of butanedionedioxime-oxidants,bassed on molecular-designing theory and characterized by its low-toxicity and good chemical stability,was proposed to leach gold from primary ores.The experiment results show that:1) butanedionedioxime(abbreviated to BDM) can be combined with many oxidants,especially potassium permanganate,to form highly effective gold lixiviants.2)in the leaching system of BDM-KMnO 4,the suitable Ox/Lig(ratio of oxidants to gold ligands) range is 0.25～0.50,optimally 0.30～0.40. 3)BDM-KMnO 4 is best used in the pH range of 8-10. 4) BDM-KMnO 4 gives similar extraction of gold from oxide ores to that of cyanide (-O 2) but the leaching rate of BDM-KMnO 4 is faster than that of cyanide-O 2. 5) gold may readily be recovered from the BDM pregnant solution by carbon adsorption and zinc precipitation.1 fig.,5 tabs.,9 refs.