Explosives Engineering Commons^™

Diagnostic Gold Deportment Studies And Leaching Behaviour Of Small-Scale Gold Mining Tailings From Eastern Region, Ghana, Ishmael Quaicoe, Martin Beyuo, Solomon Quaicoe, Nikao A. Lasidzi

Journal of Sustainable Mining

Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) sector employs about 80% of the mining workforce but only contributes about 20-30% of Ghana’s gold production. The low gold production is linked to low recoveries associated with the activities because ofinadequate understanding of the chemical, mineralogical and metallurgical characteristics of the ores. This study examined the metallurgical characteristics of typical small-scale gold mining tailings to understand their grinding characteristics, gold deportment and cyanidation behaviour. The gold deportment results showed that 96.1% of the gold in the samples is free milling (can be leached directly with cyanide and recovered through carbon adsorption), whilst the …