AuCarbTM Activated Carbon Selection Guide for CIP/CIL Processes

  Activated Carbon is crucial in any gold extraction process. It plays a key role in the profitability (operating costs) of a gold project, and the following factors should be considered when selecting suitable Activated Carbon:

• Ball-Pan Hardness and Attrition

• Gold adsorption rate(R-value)

• Gold loading capacity(K-value)

Ball-Pan Hardness

Ball-Pan Hardness is the resistance of particles to crack and/or break apart on handling. Poor activation can negatively impact hardness, resulting in high attrition and platelet generation within the gold circuit.

Attrition

 Activated Carbon in a Carbon in Pulp / Carbon in Leach circuit is subject to vigorous agitation, leading to attrition and inevitably, the production of carbon fines. This leads to the loss of gold on the escaping carbon fines to the tailings dam and as carbon is lost, more carbon is required to replenish the total carbon inventory. While the carbon can be replaced, the gold is lost forever! This affects the production cost of gold, and it is directly attributable to the carbon selected for this function.

Gold adsorption rate(R-value)

R-value   reflects the gold adsorption rate and the kinetic properties of the activated carbon. The percentage of gold adsorbed after 1 h from a prepared 10mg Au/l solution is known as "R-value".

Gold loading capacity(K-value)

K-Value reflects the gold adsorption capacity at equilibrium. It is issued from the Freundlich adsorption isotherm of activated carbon in a 1 mg gold/liter solution.