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The Newbery-Vautin chlorination process is a method for extracting gold from its ore through the use of chlorination. This process was jointly developed by James Cosmo Newbery and Claude Vautin.
The process of extracting and reducing gold from pyrite in gold ores using chlorine gas was initially introduced by Karl Friedrich Plattner around 1848. [1]
The Newbery-Vautin process and other processes based on chlorination were replaced by processes based on cyanidation, which used fewer reagents. Processes that are free of cyanide and emit less toxic byproducts have also been developed. [2]
Mining is the extraction of valuable geological materials from the Earth and other astronomical objects. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agricultural processes, or feasibly created artificially in a laboratory or factory. Ores recovered by mining include metals, coal, oil shale, gemstones, limestone, chalk, dimension stone, rock salt, potash, gravel, and clay. The ore must be a rock or mineral that contains valuable constituent, can be extracted or mined and sold for profit. Mining in a wider sense includes extraction of any non-renewable resource such as petroleum, natural gas, or even water.
Extractive metallurgy is a branch of metallurgical engineering wherein process and methods of extraction of metals from their natural mineral deposits are studied. The field is a materials science, covering all aspects of the types of ore, washing, concentration, separation, chemical processes and extraction of pure metal and their alloying to suit various applications, sometimes for direct use as a finished product, but more often in a form that requires further working to achieve the given properties to suit the applications.
Gold cyanidation is a hydrometallurgical technique for extracting gold from low-grade ore by converting the gold to a water-soluble coordination complex. It is the most commonly used leaching process for gold extraction. Cyanidation is also widely used in the extraction of silver, usually after froth flotation.
Gold mining is the extraction of gold by mining. World gold production was 3,612 tons in 2022.
Hydrometallurgy is a technique within the field of extractive metallurgy, the obtaining of metals from their ores. Hydrometallurgy involve the use of aqueous solutions for the recovery of metals from ores, concentrates, and recycled or residual materials. Processing techniques that complement hydrometallurgy are pyrometallurgy, vapour metallurgy, and molten salt electrometallurgy. Hydrometallurgy is typically divided into three general areas:
Gold extraction is the extraction of gold from dilute ores using a combination of chemical processes. Gold mining produces about 3600 tons annually, and another 300 tons is produced from recycling.
Carbon in pulp (CIP) is an extraction technique for recovery of gold which has been liberated into a cyanide solution as part of the gold cyanidation process.
Heap leaching is an industrial mining process used to extract precious metals, copper, uranium, and other compounds from ore using a series of chemical reactions that absorb specific minerals and re-separate them after their division from other earth materials. Similar to in situ mining, heap leach mining differs in that it places ore on a liner, then adds the chemicals via drip systems to the ore, whereas in situ mining lacks these liners and pulls pregnant solution up to obtain the minerals. Heap leaching is widely used in modern large-scale mining operations as it produces the desired concentrates at a lower cost compared to conventional processing methods such as flotation, agitation, and vat leaching.
Silver mining is the extraction of silver from minerals, starting with mining. Because silver is often found in intimate combination with other metals, its extraction requires elaborate technologies. In 2008, ca. 25,900 metric tons were consumed worldwide, most of which came from mining.
Wendell Earl Dunn Jr. was an American chemical engineer, metallurgist, and inventor. His technologies for high temperature chlorination, gold, tantalum and titanium extraction are still widely used.
The International Cyanide Management Code for the Manufacture, Transport and Use of Cyanide in the Production of Gold, commonly referred to as the Cyanide Code, is a voluntary program designed to assist the global gold and silver mining industries and the producers and transporters of cyanide used in gold and silver mining in improving cyanide management practices and to publicly demonstrate their compliance with the Cyanide Code through an independent and transparent process. The Cyanide Code is intended to reduce the potential exposure of workers and communities to harmful concentrations of cyanide‚ limit releases of cyanide to the environment‚ and enhance response actions in the event of an exposure or release.
James Cosmo Newbery, generally referred to as Cosmo Newbery or J. Cosmo Newbery, was a United States-educated Australian museum administrator and industrial chemist, and co-developer of the Newbery-Vautin chlorination process for gold extraction.
The Musselwhite mine is one of the largest gold mines in Canada and in the world. The mine is located in the centre of the country in Ontario. The mine has estimated reserves of 2.29 million ounces (65 t) of gold.
Maitland, originally called Garden City and sometimes misspelled Midland, is a ghost town in Lawrence County, South Dakota, United States. It was a mining community that boomed during the Black Hills Gold Rush, but was abandoned by about 1915.
A gold cyanidation ban refers to the legislation that bans mining gold through the gold cyanidation technique.
The mining industry of Liberia has witnessed a revival after the civil war which ended in 2003. Gold, diamonds, and iron ore form the core minerals of the mining sector with a new Mineral Development Policy and Mining Code being put in place to attract foreign investments. In 2013, the mineral sector accounted for 11% of GDP in the country and the World Bank projected a further increase in the sector by 2017.
Pressure oxidation is a process for extracting gold from refractory ore.
Mining works on Towers Hill is a heritage-listed group of mining ruins at Towers Hill, Charters Towers, Charters Towers Region, Queensland, Australia. They were built from 1872 to 1940s. They are individually known as Pyrites Works, Rainbow Battery, and Towers Chlorination Works. They were added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 29 April 2003.
Potassium dicyanoaurate (or potassium gold cyanide) is an inorganic compound with formula K[Au(CN)2]. It is a colorless to white solid that is soluble in water and slightly soluble in alcohol. The salt itself is often not isolated, but solutions of the dicyanoaurate ion ([Au(CN)2]−) are generated on a large scale in the extraction of gold from its ores.
Charles Butters was an American metallurgist, engineer and mine owner. A graduate of the University of California, he moved to Southern Africa in 1890 to construct a chlorination plant for Hermann Eckstein & Company. Whilst there Butters pioneered the use of the gold cyanidation process for extracting the metal from low grade ore, which opened up new deposits in Witwatersrand. He also developed other methods that increased extraction efficiency. Butters left Eckstein in 1894 to jointly found a new firm, the Rand Central Ore Reduction Company. He joined the Johannesburg Reform Committee in 1895, a group of mostly immigrants to South Africa who demanded, among other things, a stable constitution, an independent judiciary, and a better educational system; he participated in the Jameson Raid, a botched attempt against the South African Republic, and was fined $2,000.