Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

Gold is the second most economically important metallic mineral in Canada and the most important one inOntario. In 2010, Canadian mining companies produced over 3.9 billion dollars worth of gold, ranking Canadathe 9th in the world in gold production volume. In particular, over two billion dollars worth of gold wasproduced in Ontario, accounting for 52% of Canada's total gold production. With the increasingly stringentenvironmental regulations, innovative environmentally friendly mineral processing technologies are urgentlydemanded for the industry to further enhance its capability and economic efficiency and to remain competitivein the dynamic global market.Due to the rapid depletion of free milling gold ores in Canada and worldwide, gold extraction from refractoryores (such as pyritic ores and pyrrhotite tailing) having high sulfur content becomes increasingly pressing.However, the processing of these ores is challenging as a result of their high sulfur content. Though beingenvironmentally friendly, the current hydrometallurgical technology for processing gold ores under mediumtemperature pressure oxidation conditions is highly energy-costing and is rarely adopted in the industry. Themajor issue refraining its industrial adoption is the formation and accumulation of molten sulfur in thehydrometallurgical process, which drastically reduces the efficiency of the technology.Tackling this existing industrial problem, this CRD project is aimed at developing a class of cost-effectivefluorinated polymer composite sorbents for efficient sulfur adsorption in the hydrometallurgical process. Withthe high sulfur adsorption affinity of the fluorinated polymers, the use of such composites is expected to greatlyenhance the efficiency of the hydrometallurgical technology for processing of gold ores and tailings, and topotentially enable its widespread adoption in the industry.