As remaining gold deposits tend to become more refractory, some form of oxidative pre-treatment involving hydro or pyrometallurgy is necessary to maintain high metal recoveries. These pre-treatments include pressure oxidation, bio-leaching or roasting. In the past, the primary criterion for selection of oxidative or roasting. In the past, the primary criterion for selection of oxidative pre-treatment relied mainly on the extent of gold recovery and relative economics. In this study, a different appraoch has been adopted, ie the quantitative determination of environmental performance of th eoxidative pre-treatment processes bio-leaching, roasting and pressure oxidation to assess which has the least impact on the environment. By establishing the environmental performance of processes, waste minimisation can be addressed early in process selection.
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