Academician Melnikov Research Institute of Comprehensive Exploitation of Mineral Resources—IPKON, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

T. N. Matveeva, Deputy Director of Science, Doctor of Engineering Science, tmatveyeva@mail.ru
N. K. Gromova, Researcher
L. B. Lantsova, Researcher

RIVS Group, Saint-Petersburg, Russia
O. Yu. Poperechnikova, Deputy CEO of Science, Candidate of Engineering Sciences

Complex gold-bearing ore contains both a small amount of unbound gold and finely disseminated gold associated with pyrite, arsenopyrite or pyrrhotine. Such ore is a rebellious material and features low recoverability in cyanidation. It is not always that flotation enables production of concentrates rich in gold using traditional collecting and modifying agents, which necessitates development of new and efficient modes of flotation to ensure dissociation of gold-bearing minerals and gold-free iron sulphides. The article describes the experimental studies on development and testing of new selective agents and reagent regimes for fine gold flotation from complex gold-bearing ore using new complexing collectors from the class of dithiocarbamates—modified diethyl dithiocarbamate (DEDTC) and debutyl dithiocarbamate (DBDTC). The relevance of the new efficient domestic reagents lies in the potential complete recoverability of gold and other noble metals to concentrates at the reduced loss with processing tailings. The theoretical basis for the development of new reagent regimes for gold flotation is the ability of dithiocarbamates to form sustainable compounds with gold and the selective adsorbability of dithiocarbamates at the surface of gold-bearing sulphides, which ensure their transition to flotation concentrates with micro and nano gold particles. The lab-scale testing of new agents DEDTC and DBDTC shows that their joint application with butyl xanthate ensures production of higher quality concentrates in terms of the gold content at the increased gold recovery by 2–4.5 %.

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