Beneficiation of Gold Telluride Ores

The Challenge

Existing green technologies utilise tellurium in photovoltaic solar cells. Tellurium is classed as a high-risk element as cumulative demand is predicted to exceed resources.

The Golden Mile is one of the largest gold telluride deposits in the world. The majority of gold tellurides report to the flotation concentrate however tellurium is lost to the leach tailing during processing.

There is a scarcity of information on the flotation behaviour of gold telluride minerals. This research aims to improve the knowledge of gold telluride flotation behaviour and then apply this to separate a telluride rich stream from the bulk flotation concentrate.

Proposed Solution

There is a significant gap in the fundamental understanding of how gold telluride minerals perform in industrial flotation circuits. The project objective is to determine if a separation between telluride and sulphide minerals can be achieved under industrial operating conditions. The extraction of a telluride rich stream from a bulk concentrate will require a dual approach.

The first is to understand the floatability of individual gold telluride minerals under ideal and industrial pulp chemistry conditions. This will include the synthesis of gold telluride minerals and utilising these to explore the flotation response to a range of pulp chemistry conditions.

The second is to produce a telluride concentrate from an industrial bulk flotation concentrate. This will focus on flotation as the primary means of separation however multiple approaches may be required including the use of reagents, size separation, gravity and regrinding stages.

Proposed Benefits to WA

Tellurium is a critical component in the production of green energy through solar panels. By becoming a producer of tellurium or tellurium products, Western Australia will grow to be a stable global supplier of this critical element.

The production of a tellurium rich product suitable for either direct sale or downstream processing to a tellurium product will deliver economic benefits to Western Australia through royalties and increased employment opportunities. An additional saleable stream will generate increased royalties for the state whilst the construction and operation of an additional circuit or plant will generate sustainable employment for the people of Western Australia.

The co-extraction of gold and tellurium from the Golden Mile ores will not reduce the environmental footprint for gold production but it will enable the increase in recovered value via both gold and tellurium, for the same environmental footprint.

Supervisors

Dr Bogale Tadesse, Dr Laurence Dyer