Gold Extraction
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Cannabinoid Extraction
Meet IXOS®. A revolutionary gold-processing system designed for the mining industry. IXOS® is a patented nanotechnology using Molecular Imprinted Polymers (MIPS) that is faster, cleaner and a more cost-effective method than traditional activated carbon processing.
IXOS® captures more gold through the adsorption recovery process. IXOS® uses a specially formulated line of MIPS for the extraction of gold from cyanide leach solutions. IXOS® is designed to be more selective, more efficient, have higher capacity, and offer environmental benefits compared to current processing methods.
Replacing Activated Carbon
IXOS® is poised to revolutionize the traditional gold-processing method that has been used for the last century. Gold extraction using Activated Carbon has short comings as it’s not exclusive to the gold material in the leach solution. Activated carbon attracts other metals including copper, mercury and other base metals making as much as 10% of the gold unrecoverable.
For gold mines, IXOS® replaces the active carbon process for gold extraction:
• Higher adsorption efficiency=less lost to tailing or more poured gold per cycle
• IXOS® is a clean extraction process that yields purer end product
• High Gold capacity (about 25g/kg, 10x more than carbon)
• High selectivity (>97%, vs. about 40% for carbon)
• Easy to recover the gold (carbon needs heat, pressure, and chemicals)
• Clean processing with Fewer waste products, Lower carbon footprints & Less water used
• $100 USD/Oz Savings (Based on Pilot Scale Test Results for multiple mines)
IXOS Advantages
Better performance
- Higher gold capture
- Lower to no attrition or lost Au from attrition
- Better kinetics
Lower CAPEX
- High capacity and purity resulting in smaller plant
- Less complicated circuit with fewer parts
Significantly lower OPEX
- Simple low temperature elution
- NO REGENERATION
- Eco friendly OPEX savings
- Lower water usage
- Recyclable elution chemicals
- Lower power requirements
- No toxic airborne emissions
IXOS vs Activated Carbon
Activated carbon has been the media of choice for the gold sector for over a century. While activated carbon is the current standard, it suffers from a number of shortcomings. Its selectivity for gold is not exclusive. It attracts other metals from the pregnant leach solution in addition to gold, including copper, mercury, and other base metals, which reduces its capacity to capture gold. In addition, activated carbon suffers from mechanical breakdown over time, with the result that some gold captured by the product becomes unrecoverable. As a result of this and other inefficiencies associated with activated carbon, up to 5 to 10% of gold contained in a cyanide leach solution routinely remains in the solution and is not recovered by activated carbon during the process. Breakdown of activated carbon also results in carbon fines, small particles that range in size from dust to 0.7mm, that are not captured by screens and are therefore lost to the overall process.
IXOS® has been demonstrated to capture up to 99% of gold from cyanide leach solutions in laboratory and mine site testing where the data was analyzed by the mine operator, representing a material increase relative to activated carbon, which recovers between 85% and 95% of the gold, as reported by potential mining customers of IXOS®. Additionally, the increased selectivity of IXOS® results in the capture of fewer other competitive base metals. Testing at multiple mine sites has shown more than 90% gold purity captured on IXOS®, as opposed to 40%-70% for those generated by activated carbon, resulting in efficiencies in the refining process used to generate higher purities of gold.