Comprehensive Reclamation of Valuable Metals from Au-Bearing Cyanide Residue by Chlorination Roasting–Carbothermic Reduction–Magnetic Separation: Recovery of Iron

Extraction of gold from the refractory gold ores is commonly practiced by cyanide leaching, which simultaneously generates a significant amount of hazardous cyanide tailings. The cyanide tailings, still bearing certain amounts of residual gold, subsequently go through chlorination roasting to further recover Au, Ag, and other nonferrous valuable metals, and consequently, rendering the tailings inert by forming a residue containing high concentrations of Fe. This study aims at recovering Fe from the pellet-form chlorination residue by carbothermic reduction, forming magnetic Fe3O4 or metallic Fe, followed by magnetic separation. The results show that by reduction roasting at 800 °C for 4 h, a maximum amount of Fe3O4 can be generated. However, the subsequent magnetic separation was poor due to the extremely fine particle sizes and complex mineralogical associations. Notably, carbothermic reduction at 1250 °C for 4 h resulted in the formation of a metallic Fe shell on the outer surface of each residue pellet. The magnetic separation resulted in the production of an Fe concentrate containing 82.17 wt% Fe with a total Fe recovery of 79.68 wt%.