Treatment of Gold Minerals

Gold is an element that is not very reactive and gives place to a pretty limited number of natural components. In the different types of minerals that are found, often times in the form of natural gold or in the form of gold and silver flakes. Gold can present itself on its own or associated to other mineral phases, the sulfurs in particular; its dimensions can be of a centimeter to a micrometer. The unit of mineralogy of gold, as well as some of the its most characteristic properties conduce to the development of four big techniques of treatment that can very well be carried out in diverse ways; and they are recognized in all the processes of recovery in the world of gold.

Gravimetric treatment, amalgamation, flotation and cyanidation 
Gold has been a valuable metal to man since ages ago. Whether it is acquired for means of wealth, as a means of exchange, etc it has always played a very important role in the history of the world. Whole nations have been fought over and won or lost because of gold throughout history and new lands were sought after and conquered due to it as well. the value of gold and the pursuit for it is what actually made up the whole Western Hemisphere and is a big reason as to why the language Spanish is used in Rio Grande River and the Antarctic Ocean and why the countries in North American have people that speak in English.

What we have learned about the world in the past was most certainly written in gold. Even when there was not enough gold for it to be used for everyday use, the precious metal gold still meant and was considered a symbol of prosperity in civilizations of the past such as it was in Egypt and Babylon and Minoa from the third century B.C. as well as in China around 1200 B.C. Later on in the sixteenth century gold was the cause of one of the greatest periods of conquest that has ever been seen in the history of mankind. A great number of the nations of the Old World were in on it, however it is known that the ones that were the leaders in this precious metal were the Spanish when they raided the ancient civilizations in Peru and Mexico and were then able to enrich themselves in Madrid and this is how the Golden Age came about.

Three hundred years later the hunt for gold still continued as well as the search for other precious metals and this is what has made the development of the United States become much quicker and it has been one of the most important items in determining its boundary lines and the nation it has become. Gold is obviously still being sought out by many until this very day. A huge amount of gold has been obtained from the earth by miners with the usage and help of expensive mining equipment and many different methods have been used as well. There are studies though, that have been made on geology and geography that say that a lot of the earth’s gold is still in the ground waiting to be recovered. Almost every one has heard about the gold rush in 1849 that occurred when James Marshall discovered a nugget that was the size of a dime in the tailrace of Sutter’s Mill. This is when the great California Gold Rush officially began and the production of gold at the time was of 11,866 ounces. The production of gold began to increase and went up to almost 2,782,020 ounces in 1856. Around ten years later though the production of gold went down tremendously under a million ounces and this is when the gold rush ended. This event caused the old time miners to move on to other places to look for the gold in places such as Alaska, Colorado and Australia.