金精矿BIOX提金流程 EN.pdfVIP

Ch01.qxd 23/08/06 5:53 PM Page 1 1 The BIOX™ Process for the Treatment of Refractory Gold Concentrates PIETER C. VAN ASWEGEN, JAN VAN NIEKERK, WALDEMAR OLIVIER 1.1 Introduction Gencor has pioneered the commercialization of bioxidation of refractory gold ores. Development of the BIOX™ process started in the late 1970s at Gencor Process Research, in Johannesburg, South Africa. The successful development of the technology led to the commissioning of a BIOX™ pilot plant in 1984, followed by the first commercial BIOX™ plant at the Fairview mine in 1986 (van Aswegen et al. 1988). The BIOX™ process was fully com- mercialized in 1991 when the Fairview plant was expanded to treat the total concentrate production of the mine and the Edwards roasters were finally shut down. Commissioning of a further three BIOX™ plants at Harbour Lights (Barter et al. 1992) in 1992, Wiluna (Stephenson and Kelson 1997) in 1993 and Sansu (Nicholson et al. 1993) in 1994 followed. Toward the end of 1990 a single BIOX™ tank was commissioned at the Saõ Bento mine in Brazil (Slabbert et al. 1992) to operate also series with two pressure oxidation autoclaves. In 1998 the Tamboraque BIOX™ plant (Loayza and Ly 1999) was commissioned in Peru and concluded what could be considered as a first generation of com- mercial BIOX™ plants. For all these BIOX™ plants the technology was pro- vided under a technology license agreement. The robustness, simplicity of operation, environmental friendliness