PROCESS FOR THE TREATMENT OF ION FLOTATION FROTHS

摘要

An ion flotation process for the recovery of cyanides of metals including gold, platinum and palladium from a feed solution (10) is performed in an ion flotation vessel (12) using a selective surfactant (14) such as cetyltrimethylammonium bromide which is at least partly derived from the collapsed froth product of a previous ion flotation process for the recovery of the metal cyanide from which collapsed froth product the metal value has been separated at (18) by electrowinning. The residual solution containing the surfactant may be supplied direct to the ion flotation vessel (12) or the surfactant may be separated from the solution at (32) and then passed to the vessel (12). Electrowinning of the metal value is advantageously performed at the pH of the solution in the vessel (12), preferably 10-11.