Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription Access

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


Affiliations
1 Mycological Laboratory, School of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Department of Botany, Goa University, Taleigao, Goa 403 206, India, 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.

Keywords

Banded iron formation, detection, gold sulphides, ore samples, separation.
User
Notifications
Font Size

  • Dessai, A. G., The geology of Goa Group: revisited. J. Geol. Soc. India, 2011, 78, 233–242.
  • Dessai, A. G., Geology and Mineral Resources of Goa, New Delhi Publishers, New Delhi, 2018, pp. 234–240, ISBN: 978-93-86453-105.
  • Umathay, R. M., Occurrence of gold in the iron ores of Konkan area, Maharashtra. J. Geol. Soc. India, 1993, 41, 277–279.
  • Dabolkar, S. and Kamat, N. M., Gold from auriferous iron ore of Goa, India. J. Geosci. Res., 2022, 7, 81–85.
  • Sawkar, R. H., Hussain, S. M. and Naqvi, S. M., Gold mineraliza-tion in the sulphidic BIFs of Chitradurga Schist Belt, Karnataka – possibility of new workable gold deposits. J. Geol. Soc. India, 1995, 46, 91–93.
  • Boyle, R. W., Oxidation and secondary enrichment of gold deposits. In Gold, Springer, Boston, MA, USA, 1987, pp. 545–582.
  • Hazarika, P., Mishra, B., Chinnasamy, S. S. and Bernhardt, H. J., Multi-stage growth and invisible gold distribution in pyrite from the Kundarkocha sediment-hosted gold deposit, Eastern India. Ore Geol. Rev., 2003, 55, 134–145.
  • Kumar, D., Rao, D. S., Mondal, S., Sridhar, K., Rajesh, K. and Satya-narayanan, M., Gold-sulfide mineralization in ultramafic–mafic– granite complex of Jashpur, Bastar craton, central India: evidences from geophysical studies. J. Geol. Soc. India, 2017, 90, 147–153.
  • Attia, Y. A. and El-Zeky, M., Bioleaching of gold pyrite tailings with adapted bacteria. Hydrometallurgy, 1989, 22, 291–300.
  • Aleksandrova, T. N., Talovina, I. V. and Duryagina, A. M., Gold-sulfide deposits of the Russian Arctic zone: mineralogical features and prospects of ore benefication. Geochemistry, 2020, 80, 125510.
  • Komnitsas, C. and Pooley, F. D., Bacterial oxidation of an arsenical gold sulfide concentrate from Olympias, Greece. Miner. Eng., 1990, 3, 295–306.
  • Marchevsky, N., Quiroga, M. B., Giaveno, A. and Donati, E., Micro-bial oxidation of refractory gold sulfide concentrate by a native con-sortium. Trans. Nonferrous Met. Soc. China, 2017, 27, 1143–1149.
  • Ogola, J. S., Mitullah, W. V. and Omulo, M. A., Impact of gold mining on the environment and human health: a case study in the Migori gold belt, Kenya. Environ. Geochem. Health, 2002, 24, 141–157.
  • Bamba, O., Parisot, J. C., Grandin, G. and Beauvais, A., Ferricrete genesis and supergene gold behaviour in Burkina Faso, West Africa. Geochem.: Explor., Environ., Anal., 2002, 2, 3–13.
  • Pretorius, A. J., van Reenen, D. D. and Barton Jr, J. M., BIF-hosted gold mineralization at the Fumani Mine, Sutherland greenstone belt, South Africa. S. Afr. J. Geol., 1988, 91, 429–438.
  • Kovalev, K. R., Kalinin, Y. A., Polynov, V. I., Kydyrbekov, E. L., Borisenko, A. S., Naumov, E. A. and Kolesnikova, M. K., The Suzdal gold-sulfide deposit in the black shale of Eastern Kazakhstan. Geol. Ore Depos., 2012, 54, 254–275.
  • Siva Siddaiah, N., Hanson, G. N. and Rajamani, V., Rare earth ele-ment evidence for syngenetic origin of an Archean stratiform gold sulfide deposit, Kolar schist belt, South India. Econ. Geol., 1994, 89, 1552–1566.
  • Panda, L., Das, B., Rao, D. S. and Mishra, B. K., Selective floccu-lation of banded hematite quartzite (BHQ) ores. Open Miner. Pro-cess. J., 2011, 4, 45–51.
  • Southam, G., Lengke, M. F., Fairbrother, L. and Reith, F., The bio-geochemistry of gold. Elements, 2009, 5, 303–307.
  • de Oliveira, S. M. B. and Larizzatti, J. H., Some observations on gold in the weathering profile at Garimpo Porquinho, an artisanal mine in the Tapajós region, Brazilian Amazon. Geol. USP Sci. Ser., 2005, 5(2), 1–11.
  • Feigl, F. and Anger, V., Spot Tests in Inorganic Analysis, Elsevier, The Netherlands, 2012; https://www.elsevier.com/books/spot-tests-in-inorganic-analysis/feigl/978-0-444-40929-4.
  • Oliveira, C. M., Machado, C. M., Duarte, G. W. and Peterson, M., Beneficiation of pyrite from coal mining. J. Clean. Prod., 2016, 139, 821–827.
  • Falconer, D. M. and Craw, D., Supergene gold mobility: a textural and geochemical study from gold placers in southern New Zealand. Econ. Geol. (Spec. Publ.), 2009, 14, 77–93.
  • Reith, F., Rogers, S. L., McPhail, D. C. and Webb, D., Biominerali-zation of gold: biofilms on bacterioform gold. Science, 2006, 313, 233–236.
  • Dabolkar, S. and Kamat, N., Method for separation and detection of gold sulphide from banded magnetite quartzite (BMQ) of Goa. Econ. Environ. Conserv. (Suppl. Issue), 2022, 28, 250–253.
  • Ugarkar, A. G., Malapur, M. A. and Kumar, B. C., Archean turbidite hosted orogenic gold mineralization in the Gadag greenstone belt, Western Dharwar Craton, Peninsular India. Ore Geol. Rev., 2016, 72, 1224–1242.
  • Saha, I. and Venkatesh, A. S., Invisible gold within sulfides from the Archean Hutti–Maski schist belt, southern India, J. Asian Earth Sci., 2002, 20, 449–457.
  • Pandalai, H. S., Jadhav, G. N., Mathew, B., Panchapakesan, V., Raju, K. K. and Patil, M. L., Dissolution channels in quartz and the role of pressure changes in gold and sulfide deposition in the Archean, greenstone-hosted, Hutti gold deposit, Karnataka, India. Mineral. Depos., 2003, 38, 597–624.
  • Brierley, C. L., Mining biotechnology: research to commercial de-velopment and beyond. In Biomining, Springer, Berlin, Germany, 1997, pp. 3–17.
  • Brierley, J. A. and Brierley, C. L., Present and future commercial applications of biohydrometallurgy. Hydrometallurgy, 2001, 59, 233–239.
  • Reith, F., McPhail, D. C. and Christy, A. G., Bacillus cereus, gold and associated elements in soil and other regolith samples from Tomakin Park Gold Mine in southeastern New South Wales, Aus-tralia. J. Geochem. Explor., 2005, 85, 81–98.
  • Reith, F., Lengke, M. F., Falconer, D., Craw, D. and Southam, G., The geomicrobiology of gold. ISME J., 2007, 1, 567.
  • Brierley, J. A., A perspective on developments in biohydrometal-lurgy, Hydrometallurgy, 2008, 94, 2–7.
  • Brierley, C. L., Biohydrometallurgical prospects. Hydrometallurgy, 2010, 104, 324–328.

Abstract Views: 171

PDF Views: 97




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

Abstract Views: 171  |  PDF Views: 97

Authors

Sujata Dabolkar
Mycological Laboratory, School of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Department of Botany, Goa University, Taleigao, Goa 403 206, India, India
Nandkumar Kamat
Mycological Laboratory, School of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Department of Botany, Goa University, Taleigao, Goa 403 206, India, India

Abstract


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.

Keywords


Banded iron formation, detection, gold sulphides, ore samples, separation.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv123%2Fi11%2F1390-1393