Hydrometallurgical - Preparation of gold by electrolysis from gold-loaded organic phase

A new method on direct electrolysis recovery of gold from loaded-metal organic phase with electrolyte aqueous solution together was reported. Electrolysis recovery of gold from the organic phase of extracting Au(CN)-R4N+ by tributyl phosphate(TBP) was studied. Many influences on the recovery of gold were investigated, such as the technical conditions of electrolysis, the concentration of gold, the type and concentration of electrolytes and the effect of the reducing agents. The results show that this method not only omits the traditional procedures such as stripping and reducing and so on, but also obtains adherent sheet gold of high quality with a high recovery rate. And by addtion of small quantity of reducing agent in electrolyte solution, the recovery rate can be further improved. This method was also suitable for the recovery of silver and copper. To prepare silver, the used system was similar to that of preparing gold, but to prepare copper, it should be performed in the system of the Cu-loaded D(2)EHPA-heptane organic phase with aqueous acidic solution of some electrolytes together.