Resin Ion Exchange
Historically, there has been considerable incentive to develop simple ion exchange systems to compete with the more common metallurgical processes such as the use of carbon in the gold industry etc. In particular the smaller recovery operations stood to benefit from a simpler process requiring less capital and a smaller number of equipment units. Recently resin in solution is attracting considerable interest for solution treatment from heap leach operations.
The claimed major advantages of resins are
- avoids the requirement of high pressure elution of carbon
- avoids the need for thermal regeneration
- potentially very high metal loadings
- resins being spherical can be manufactured in uniform size leading to advantages in column adsorption
- resin beads tend to be of high strength reducing attrition losses
- rapid elution characteristics
- low density resins allow RIP @ pulp densities of 25-30% solids thus avoiding the need for a thickener in the mill circuit
- resins are less prone to organic poisoning than carbon
The claimed major disadvantages of resins are
- less selectivity for some metallurgical processes
- resin ion exchange beads are smaller than carbon granules thus necessitating pulp pre-screening in CIP operations
- high cost
- when competing ions are present in solution and when using expanded bed or agitated RIP systems more stages may be required as compared to carbon adsorption systems
- low density resins require larger CIX columns to treat the same solution flow as compared to carbon columns. Development work is continuing on high density resins
Batch Testwork
- loading characteristics (equilibrium isotherms)
- kinetic characteristics
- resin hydraulics
- resin breakthrough tests
- resin durability tests elution characteristics
- elution characteristics
- Toxicity Characteristic Leach Procedure Testwork (TCLP)
- electrowinning for metal recovery
Laboratory Scale Continuous Resin in Solution Apparatus
A flexible laboratory system, currently configured with 5 columns, is available for small scale pilot operations.
Resin in Solution Pilot Plant
AMMTEC has available a pilot plant for the testing of extractants at our Balcatta premises in Perth, Western Australia. Arrangements may be made to load the columns with activated carbon thus enabling direct resin to carbon comparisons. The resin manufacturers will normally supply the resin for these trials at no cost to our clients. A fully integrated electro winning circuit may also be incorporated as required.
Resin in Pulp Pilot Plant
AMMTEC has available a RIP pilot plant which can be configured to suit the testwork programme.