Asbestos Waste Treatment—An Effective Process to Selectively Recover Gold and Other Nonferrous Metals

Abstract

We investigated the potential of tailings generated from chrysotile asbestos fiber production as a source of iron, nonferrous metals, and gold. We proposed the use of granulometric separation and systematically examined different enrichment processes, namely magnetic separation, gravity concentration, and enrichment using a Knelson concentrator, to extract the valuable components. The characterization of the initial tailing samples revealed that it comprises primarily of serpentine, brucite, antigorite, hematite, vustite, sillimanite, and magnesium oxide. Using the suggested enrichment process, we isolated gold, chromite, and nickel-cobalt concentrates as valuable products in addition to magnetite. The new approach exhibited high separation efficiency for iron, nonferrous metals, and gold, allowing their satisfactory extraction.

Synthesis of Chemical Adsorbent for Purification of Heavy Oil Residue

“…Due to the huge amount of waste produced in various industries, there is a need for asbestos mineral extraction plants to explore innovative technological solutions focusing on the construction and diversification of materials for other purposes. This strategic shift can expand the range of manufactured products and solve environmental problems for the processing of deposited waste (Baigenzhenov et al, 2024;Kraus et al, 2018;Jenifer, 2015). Recent study has described the methods of obtaining molecular sieves and zeolites from rice husks (Zainal et al, 2024;Zharmenov et al, 2018;Yefremova et al, 2016;Jo et al, 2015), showing properties comparable with commercial types.…”

Heap leaching of gold from the destructured oxidized ore of the Belsu deposit, Republic of Kazakhstan

“…However, a big problem is the destructured and clay ores, which reduce the seepage of the gold-dissolving solution, which leads to decrease of gold extraction [11][12][13][14][15]. Based on the extensive experience of heap leaching operations, agglomeration of crushed ore can be successfully considered and used as a pretreatment of ore that contains a significant amount of fines and clay minerals [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21].…”

Study of the Cyanide Leaching of Gold from Low-Grade Raw Materials in the Presence of Amino Acids

“…Since the late 1980s, hydrometallurgical autoclave and bacterial dissection technologies have been gradually introduced into the preparatory process of processing goldcontaining raw materials [13,14]. Processes such as Albion, Leachox, etc., have also been proposed [15,16].…”

“…A significant disadvantage of this method is the need to use expensive acid-resistant equipment. In addition, operating an autoclave under high-pressure conditions creates additional dangerous circumstances [16].…”

“…The Albion process [16,17] is a combination of ultrafine grinding and oxidative leaching at atmospheric pressure; in this case, sulfides, as in the autoclave method, are oxidized, releasing metals for subsequent extraction via cyanidation. The ultrafine grinding of raw materials is carried out in mills up to 80% of the size class at 10-20 microns, which is accompanied by an increase in the number of grain cracks and lattice defects in the mineral compared to unground minerals.…”