A STUDY OF THE KINETICS OF ADSORPTION OF GOLD AND ZINC CYANIDE ONTO A STRONG BASE ANION-EXCHANGE RESIN USING A MINICOLUMN TECHNIQUE

A mini-column apparatus was used to study the kinetics of adsorption of gold cyanide and zinc cyanide onto a strong base anion exchange resin. The single component adsorption of gold cyanide and zinc cyanide were studied as well as the binary adsorption of both components. Experimental breakthrough curves were successfully simulated using a model which includes external film transfer and intraparticle surface diffusion. It is shown that the kinetic parameters measured on single component experiments provide good prediction of the binary behaviour. It is shown that although gold is kinetically favoured and initially loads more rapidly onto the resin, equilibrium considerations cause zinc to displace the gold. This has important implications for the use of resins for gold adsorption applications where zinc is also present. The film transfer coefficients measured in this work are shown to be consistent with existing correlations.