Effect of convectional and locally sourced reagents on the floatation of iperindo gold bearing ore (eBook)

Master's Thesis from the year 2021 in the subject Geography / Earth Science - Geology, Mineralogy, Soil Science, grade: 4.5, , language: English, abstract: This research is aimed at studying the amenability of lperindo lode gold deposit to froth flotation using convectional and locally-sourced frother and collector, leading to the comparison of their recovery efficiency. The high demand for metals have resulted in the need for large throughput plants to deliver increased productivity, increased utilization and reduced operational cost. The 315 Exploration Licenses issued in 2016, in respect of the priority minerals identified by Nigeria government, gold top the list. It has been observed that the gross domestic products of many countries of the world are directly related to the quantum of metal products produced or consumed by those nations and Nigeria deserves to be among gold producing nations of the world with enhanced economy because Nigeria economy cannot longer rely on petroleum. However, Nigeria will benefit immensely from the mining and processing of its gold deposits because Iperindo lode gold ore, being one of Nigeria’s gold deposits can affect our economy positively if value is added to it by way of mining and processing it efficiently.

The scope of this research encompasses sourcing for Iperindo lode gold ore from its deposit, chemical characterization of the sourced gold ore by using atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS), ascertaining the mineralogical assemblage and elemental composition of the gold ore using X-ray diffractometer (XRD) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) while the optical microscopy analysis using scanning electron microscope (SEM/EDX). Comminution and particle size analysis of the gold ore was carried out using the following sieve sizes: +500, -500+355, -355+250, -250+180, -180+125, -125+90, -90+63, -63+45 and -45 µm. Froth flotation process using the locally sourced frother and collector follow by the characterization of the concentrate and tailing to determine the grade of gold recovered at each stages and finally, evaluation of the results.