from the conferences organized by TANGER Ltd.
<div>Distinguished by its wealth in refractory gold deposits, Davao de Oro in the Philippines has historically relied on cyanidation for gold extraction. This method, while prevalent, employs toxic cyanide, leading to significant environmental and biological risks. The urgency to develop less detrimental and more effective methods of extraction is evident. Hypochlorite has emerged as a viable reagent in the dissolution of refractory gold ores, presenting an environmentally sustainable and safer alternative to traditional cyanide-based processes in terms of production, utilization, and disposal. This study investigates the effects of various pH levels and hypochlorite concentrations on ore dissolution. Notably, in the preliminary oxidation experimental runs, the specific ratios of sodium chloride (NaCI) to calcium hypochlorite (Ca(OCl)2), particularly in the ratio of 15:15 and 20:10, demonstrated efficacy in solution environments maintaining a pH level of 6. With the same pH, the ratio of 60:30 yielded the highest gold dissolution rates, with an average of 86.84% gold recovery, peaking at 97.31% in the final runs. The research aims to contribute substantially to the advancement of gold recovery methods, providing a more environmentally conscious approach compared to the conventional cyanidation process.</div>
Keywords: Gold dissolution, hypochlorite, refractory ore, leaching© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.