Activated Carbon Used in mining

Activated carbon used in mining refers to the application of high-performance granular activated carbon as the primary adsorption medium for recovering gold, silver, and other precious metals from cyanide leach solutions in hydrometallurgical processing operations — the dominant gold recovery technology used in commercial gold mining globally.

In the carbon-in-pulp (CIP), carbon-in-leach (CIL), and carbon-in-column (CIC) processes, activated carbon is contacted with cyanide leach solutions containing dissolved gold-cyanide and silver-cyanide complexes. The carbon selectively adsorbs these metal complexes from solution at high efficiency, concentrating the precious metal onto the carbon surface. The loaded carbon is then subjected to elution — stripping the adsorbed gold and silver using hot caustic cyanide or other eluant solutions — followed by electrowinning to recover the metal and thermal regeneration to restore the carbon’s adsorption capacity for reuse in the circuit.

Activated carbon’s combination of high adsorption capacity, mechanical hardness, elution compatibility, and regeneration durability makes it the undisputed material of choice for precious metal recovery in mining operations ranging from small artisanal gold processing facilities to large open-pit and underground mine processing plants treating millions of tonnes of ore annually.