Current progress on gold recovery from refractory ore and waste electrical and electronic equipment

The physical and chemical properties of gold promote its application, such as in the high-tech, electronic products, and aerospace industries. The easily leachable ore is gradually depleted. Thus, it becomes necessary to extract gold from other resources such as refractory ore and electrical and electronic equipment. The normal method of leaching for gold is cyanide leaching, but it is very dangerous for both environment and operator. Non-cyanide leaching methods, including thiourea leaching, halide leaching, and sulfate leaching have been developed to substitute cyanide leaching. A variety of methods to enrich gold from leaching solutions are described in this paper, including solvent extraction, electrowinning, activated carbon adsorption, and ion exchange resins. Among those methods, ion exchange resins can adsorb gold with high adsorption efficiency and regenerate easily as well. This paper focuses on the research progress of the recovery of gold from non-cyanide leachates by ion exchange resins, summarizes the existing resin types and elution processes, points out the limitations in the application of current ion exchange resins, and discusses possible solutions.