Grant: Engage Grants Program

Gold is one of the most expensive precious metals that are widely used not only as traditional jewelleries but also as useful components in a variety of well known advanced materials. Mining companies produce gold from ore by leaching followed by adsorption onto activated carbon. However, activated carbon is very expensive and is not selective to gold as they co-adsorb other metals and further refining is necessary to produce pure gold. Moreover, elution of gold from activated carbon is very difficult as physical adsorption takes place where gold is trapped inside the micro-pore of carbon particles. A Canadian copper and gold mining and processing company named ""Rambler Metals and Mining Canada Limited"" produces copper and gold from the massive sulphides ore from their Ming Copper-Gold Mine in Baie Verte, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. However, the company is having problem in their hydrometallurgical process plant as the gold recovery with their current process is low. Rambler Metals is interested in increasing their gold recovery using a suitable process. The applicant is expecting that the gold is preg-robbed by the carbonaceous adsorbent (activated carbon) that is currently being used in the process that ultimately lowers the overall gold recovery. To overcome this problem, in the proposed project, a hydrometallurgical process will be developed for Rambler Metals to increase the gold recovery by applying cheap but very efficient bio-adsorbents prepared from biomass wastes. The applicant has extensive experience to produce and investigate such bio-adsorbents for gold recovery. If the proposed bio-adsorbents work for Rambler Metals and Mining Canada Limited to improve the gold recovery process, this Canadian metal production industry will benefit from this industrial research by continuing to play a pioneering role in the global competitive market.