Viktor Shumskiy

Abstract:

It is rather difficult to keep stability of lead production under conditions of lead market recession and rather low production profitability. The problem could be solved by addition of gold-bearing ores and concentrates to charge of primary lead production facilities, which allows providing high added value of products due to additional production of gold as Dore or refined metal. This solution is possible due to high level of gold recovery into lead (99-99.5%), which is higher than the recovery values of any other gold-bearing raw material process, and due to well-proven methods of gold recovery from lead bullion in the existing refineries. Experience of addition of gold-bearing concentrates and gold-bearing silica ores as fluxes to lead smelting charge has been known for a long time. However, the amount of addition of such materials to charge, and, respectively, gold concentration in charge is very limited due to limitations for minimum lead content in charge, which are common for most of lead smelting processes. Such limitations are minimized in flash smelting processes. The paper provides the results of studies of gold behavior during smelting of gold-bearing lead raw materials in KIVCET plants, demonstrating the perceptiveness of KIVCET process application for integrated processing of lead and gold-bearing raw materials.