Successful separation and detection of gold sulphide in ore samples from the banded iron formation of Goa, India

Gold (I) sulphide (Au2S) is an inorganic compound and the principal sulphide of gold. This study aimed to separate gold sulphide from ore samples such as banded hematite quartzite mined from the banded iron forma­tion of Goa, India. The samples were dried, powdered and then concentrated by the panning method. The coarse ferromagnetic material was separated and sieved into different fractions of varying sieve sizes, i.e. 250, 150, 106 and 53 mm. Next, they were subjected to serial washing, and after drying, were tested for the presence of gold by ICP-AES, optical microscopy, phase contrast microscopy, SEM-EDS and total content of the sulphur was analysed by CHNS/O elemental analyzer.