How is gold extracted from rock
- how is gold ore processed
- how is gold ore refined
- how is gold mining process
- how is gold extracted and processed
Gold mining process flow chart
How to extract gold from ore at home.
How Gold Works
Removing the gold-bearing rock from the ground is just the first step. To isolate pure gold, mining companies use a complex extraction process. The first step in this process is breaking down large chunks of rock into smaller pieces.
At a mill, large machines known as crushers reduce the ore to pieces no larger than road gravel. The gravel-like material then enters rotating drums filled with steel balls. In these drums, the ore is ground to a fine slurry or powder.
Next, mill operators thicken the slurry with water to form pulp and run the pulp through a series of leaching tanks.
How is gold processedLeaching dissolves the gold out of the ore using a chemical solvent. The most common solvent is cyanide, which must be combined with oxygen in a process known as carbon-in-pulp. As the cyanide and oxygen react chemically, gold in the pulp dissolves.
When workers introduce small carbon grains to the tank, the gold adheres to the carbon. Filtering the pulp through screens separates the gold-bearing carbon.
The carbon moves to a stripping vessel where a hot caustic solution separates the
- how is gold processed
- how is gold processed and refined