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Hydrometallurgy 83 (2006) 90 96

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Biooxidation of arsenopyrite concentrate using BIOX process:


Industrial experience in Tamboraque, Peru
Martha E. Ly Arrascue a,1 , Jan van Niekerk b,
b

a
Golder Associates Peru S.A., Peru
Gold Fields Ltd., 24 St. Andrews Road, Parktown, 2193, Johannesburg, South Africa

Available online 18 May 2006

Abstract
The Tamboraque Plant is located in the mining district of Viso-Aruri, approximately 90 km east of Lima, Peru, at an altitude of
3000 m above sea level. In 1980 the previous owners of the mine and processing plant, Minera Lizandro Proao S.A. (MLPSA),
initiated an investigation into the available technologies for the recovery of refractory gold from old tailings.
The Coricancha mine is a polymetallic ore deposit and lead and zinc concentrates can be produced by flotation. The zinc
flotation tailings can be treated further by differential flotation to produce an arsenopyrite concentrate containing the bulk of the
gold. The TAMBORAQUE project involved the expansion of the ore treatment capacity of the plant from 200 to 600 ton/day.
The expansion also involved the installation of a separate flotation section for the zinc tailings and a BIOX and CIL plant for the
treatment of the arsenopyrite concentrate. The first phase of the project involved the installation of a flotation and BIOX plant for
the treatment of an existing zinc flotation tailings dump accumulated over the years. The second phase involved the expansion of
the capacity of the existing plant to treat fresh ore from the mine.
Initial batch tests indicated that the arsenopyrite concentrate could be treated successfully using biooxidation. A 50 kg/day
biooxidation pilot plant was commissioned in Lima, using a native bacterial culture isolated from acid mine drainage from the
Coricancha mine. MLPSA operated the pilot plant successfully for 20 months. At this stage MLPSA contacted Gencor (now Gold
Fields Limited) for assistance in the optimization of the process. The continuous testwork indicated that 90% gold recovery can be
achieved after only 80% sulfide oxidation.
A licence agreement was concluded between MLPSA and Gencor in 1995 for the use of the BIOX technology at the
Tamboraque plant. As part of the agreement, Gencor carried out the process design of the biooxidation plant.
Continuous plant operation commenced at the end of August 1998 after successful commissioning of the plant. The feed rate
through the plant was, however, below the design due to concentrate shortages. The plant reached the design capacity during 2002,
achieving 85% gold recovery on a bulk pyrite and arsenopyrite concentrate produced from fresh ore from the mine. The mining and
metallurgical activities were, however, shut down in October 2002 due to financial and mining related problems.
2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: marthaly@rocketmail.com,
mly@golder.com.pe (M.E.L. Arrascue), janv@goldfields.co.za
(J. van Niekerk).
1
Wiese Sudameris Leasing until 2003.
0304-386X/$ - see front matter 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.hydromet.2006.03.050

The Coricancha mine is located in the Mining District


Viso Aruri, at an altitude of 4000 m above sea level, and
the Tamboraque plant, at an altitude of 3000 m above sea
level. The plant is located approximately 90 km east of
the city of Lima on the Central highway, a few

M.E.L. Arrascue, J. van Niekerk / Hydrometallurgy 83 (2006) 9096

kilometers from the town of San Mateo. The mine has


been almost constantly in production since the Spanish
Colonial Stage. Ownership of the mine was first held
by Negociacin Minera Lizandro Proao until 2000,
when ownership was transferred to Wiese Sudameris
Leasing.
1.1. Mineralogy
The Coricancha mine consists of a filoneano field
(low sulfurization type) with quartz veins and sulfide
polymetallics of Au, Ag, Cu, Pb and Zn that filled the
main system fractures (Constancia and Wellington) as
well as others of tensional type (Roco, Colquipallana,
etc.), that cross volcanic formations of the Rmac Group.
The gold is mainly found as finely disseminated
particles within the crystal structure of the arsenopyrite,
causing it to be refractory. A small fraction of the gold is
associated with pyrite, but is rarely associated with
silver, galena and sphalerite [1].

91

was, however, causing environmental problems due


to the arsenic. The first flotation cells were installed
in 1930 to separate the arsenopyrite from lead and
silver.
MPLSA, a small lead and zinc concentrates producer, initiated an investigation to evaluate alternative
process options for gold recovery from its flotation
tailings. The gold bearing tailings was subjected to a
differential flotation process to obtain a pyrite concentrate and an arsenopyrite concentrate. Both of the
concentrates were highly refractory, achieving less than
10% gold recovery after direct cyanidation. The
arsenopyrite concentrate, due to its higher gold content, was selected for further testwork and subjected to
roasting, pressure leaching and bacterial leaching
processes. Based on the laboratory results, biooxidation was selected as the preferred process route due to
the technical and economic advantages the process
offered.
1.3. Process description

1.2. History
Mining activities in the Viso Aruri district started
in the middle IX century, initially developing the
zones rich in silver. The tenacity and impulse of Don
Lizandro Proao resulted in the startup of the Tamboraque smelter in 1906. Operation of the smelter

The ore from the Coricancha mine was previously


treated at a rate of 200 ton/day to produce lead and zinc
concentrates. The zinc flotation tailings, still containing
3.14 g/ton gold and 33.9 g/ton silver, was deposited on
Tailings dams 1 and 2 for further processing at a later
stage.

Crushing

Ore Mine

Milling
Lead Concentrate

Lead Flotation
TAILINGS DAM

Zinc Concentrate
Zinc Flotation
Pyrite concentrate

Pyrite Flotation

General flotation tailings

Arsenopyrite Flotation

BIOX Process

overflow

Neutralisation

Neutralisation Residue

underflow

Gold in activated carbon

Cianuracion
(CIL)

Cyanide Destruction
Caros Acid

Cyanidation tailings

Fig. 1. Flow sheet of Tamboraque plantPhase 2.

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M.E.L. Arrascue, J. van Niekerk / Hydrometallurgy 83 (2006) 9096

The objective of the Tamboraque Project was to


increase the milling capacity of the plant to 600 ton/day
and at the same time to construct facilities to recover
gold and silver from the arsenopyrite. The project was
scheduled to be executed in two phases. During phase 1
an estimated 19,000 oz gold and 28,000 oz silver was to
be recovered from the 260,000 tons of gold bearing
tailings previously deposited on Tailings dams 1 and 2.
This phase included the construction of additional
flotation capacity as well as the BIOX and conventional CIL plants for gold recovery [2].
The second phase of the project was the expansion of
the existing plant to treat 600 ton/day of fresh ore from
the mine to produce the lead and zinc concentrates.
Pyrite and arsenopyrite concentrates would be produced
from the zinc flotation tailings. The planned gold
production for phase 2 was 23,500 oz per year. The
Tamboraque flow sheet for phase 2 of the project is
shown in Fig. 1.
2. Background
The following section will give a brief description of
the steps followed up to the installation and operation of
the Tamboraque BIOX plant.
2.1. Bacteria isolation from the acid rock drainage of
the Coricancha mine
The Coricancha mine is an underground mine with
several levels for ore extraction. The presence of acidic
water (acid mine drainage) can be observed in all areas
of the mine. It was determined that the 710 extraction
level of the Constancia vein has the most acidic pH
values (2.0) and the highest iron (9.5 g/l) and arsenic
(55 mg/l) solution concentrations. It was decided to
isolate mesophilic native bacteria present in this acidic
water. This mixed culture, with a population density of
2 108 cells/ml, was adapted to arsenopyrite concentrate
through the progressive increase of the pulp solids
concentration from 1% to 5%. Regular sub-culturing
was carried out by transferring 10% of the biooxidized
pulp to a new culture media with increased solid
concentration. The adapted bacterial culture was used in
further laboratory tests.
2.2. Laboratory tests
Several laboratory tests were carried out in a 20 l
stainless steel tank using the mesophilic bacteria
adapted to the arsenopyrite concentrate. The tank
was supplied with constant agitation, aeration and

temperature control. Excellent bacterial development


and growth was observed during the tests, obtaining
populations of 109 cells/ml when a pulp density of
20% solids was reached. The high metal concentrations in solution did not inhibit the bacteria, rather the
bacterial cultivation showed a good adjustment to the
arsenopyrite concentrate. The testwork also confirmed
that using acidic water from 710 level in the mine did
not affect the process negatively. On the contrary it
proved to be very beneficial as it eliminated the
sulfuric acid consumption, thereby realizing an
operating cost saving. The testwork indicated that a
sulfide sulfur oxidation of 85% was sufficient to
achieve a gold recovery of 92% from the biooxidation product.
2.3. Pilot tests
A continuous biooxidation pilot plant, capable of
treating up to 50 kg/day concentrate was donated by the
German organization GTZ and the pilot plant was
installed at the TECSUP Institute in Lima. The pilot
plant consisted of five 300 l stainless steel reactors. Each
reactor was equipped with agitation and an air sparger.
The first four tanks were also equipped with stainless
steel cooling coils.
The pilot plant was operated with the first two reactors
(primary reactors) in parallel and the three secondary
reactors in series, giving a total of 4 stages. The pH was
controlled manually by adding either sulfuric acid or
lime to the reactors. The pulp temperature in each reactor
was also controlled manually by opening and closing
valves in the heating/cooling circuits. The process
proved to be acid consuming when using water from
the Rmac river for feed dilution. The acid consumption
was, however, drastically reduced by using acid mine
drainage. The concentrate is expected to be acid
consuming due to the high arsenopyrite concentration.
MLPSA achieved stable continuous biooxidation
treatment of the arsenopyrite concentrate. A weight loss
of 30% to 35% was measured at a plant retention time of
10 days and a feed solids concentration of 15% by mass.
Gold recoveries in excess of 90% were recorded during
this period.
In June 1994 Minera Lizandro Proao S.A. contacted
Gencor Process Research (now Gold Fields Limited) for
assistance with the optimization of the continuous pilot
plant testwork to ensure that sufficient information can
be obtained for the design of the industrial scale plant.
The pilot plant testwork continued, achieving gold
recoveries in excess of 90% at 83% sulfide sulfur
oxidation. The plant retention time was also reduced to

M.E.L. Arrascue, J. van Niekerk / Hydrometallurgy 83 (2006) 9096

6 days while maintaining the feed solids concentration


at 15% [3,4].
3. BIOX process at Tamboraque
3.1. Design of the BIOX plant
Gencor supplied MLPSA with a detailed process
design package for the Tamboraque BIOX plant. The
plant had a design capacity of 60 ton/day concentrate
with grades of 2230% As; 3034% Fe; 21.831.1 g/ton
Au; 49.862.2 g/ton Ag and 2430% S2. The design
was based on data collected from the pilot plant test.
The pyrite concentrate, with grades of 1.82% As,
4446% Fe, 4.65.5 g/ton Au, 133 g/ton Ag and 79%
S2 would go the tailings facility along with the flotation
tailings, cyanidation tailings and neutralization residues.
The typical process parameters were [5]:
1. pH
2. DO concentration
3. Feed solids concentration
4. BIOX retention time
5. Pulp temperature

1.21.8
2 ppm minimum
20% by mass
45 days
4045 C

The main criteria for the plant design are summarized


in Table 1.
Table 1
Main criteria for the design of the Tamboraque BIOX plant
Atmospheric pressure
Dry maximum temperature
Wet maximum temperature
Plant capacity
Plant availability
Existing ore analysis
Sulfur as sulfide
Arsenic
Mineralogic analysis
Pyrite
Arsenopyrite
% Solids in the feeding pulp
Total retention time
Number of primary reactors in parallel
Number of secondary reactors in series
Temperature of the biooxidation pulp
Weight loss
Total air needed
Heat generated in the reaction
Number of CCD stages
Washing water ratio in CCD
(washing water: solid flow)
Water needed for CCD
Neutralization stages
Retention time per neutralization stage

70.1 kPa
20 C
16 C
60 ton/day
95%
30.0%
26.0%
35.3%
56.5%
20%
5 days
3
3
40 C
30%
15,400 N m3/h
13,000 kW
3
8.2
9.0 m2/ton/h
6
1h

93

3.2. Toxicity tests


During the construction of the plant, several toxicity
tests were performed on material to be used in the
industrial process, for example the different types of
rubber, fertilizers to be used as nutrients, lime and
limestone from different suppliers to control the pulp
pH, cement used in liners. These tests were performed in
glass vessels with 9K nutrient medium. The tests were
inoculated with the same mixed bacterial culture to be
used in the industrial plant and the tests were placed in
an orbital agitator at 36 C. All tests were performed in
triplicate and few tests showed any deviation from the
performance of the control tests. The rate of ferrous to
ferric conversion and bacterial growth were used to
evaluate the performance of the 9K shake flask tests.
Batch biooxidation tests were also performed on
concentrates produced using different flotation reagents.
The tests indicated that the mercaptobenzotiazole
reagent inhibits bacterial activity and the reagent was
thus not used in the industrial plant.
3.3. Inoculum build-up for the industrial BIOX plant
The bacterial inoculum isolated from the Coricancha
mine was adapted to the arsenopyrite concentrate over
a 4-year period. The volume of active bacterial
inoculum was increased using a series of progressively
larger bioreactors. The volumes of the reactors used
were 10 l, 100 l, 1 m3 and 10 m3 and each stage of
the inoculum build-up required approximately 7 to
10 days.
For each stage sufficient concentrate was milled to
85% 45 m. The nutrient medium for the 10 l and
100 l reactors were made up using 9K nutrient salts,
while fertilizers (ammonium sulfate, potassium sulfate
and diamonic phosphate) were used for the 1 m3 and
10 m3 reactors. Acid mine drainage was used for
dilution in all the stages of the process. This increased
the ferric concentration in the tests and also reduced the
initial acid consumption for the tests.
The main control parameters, measured on a daily
basis, were temperature (3640 C), dissolved oxygen
(25 mg/l) and pH (1.31.6). The ferrous and ferric iron
concentrations, bacterial population, arsenic concentration in solution and redox potential were also measured
on a daily basis to evaluate the bacterial activity in the
tests.
Sulfide sulfur oxidations of 96%, 94% and 90% were
achieved corresponding to a gold recovery of 92%. The
first BIOX reactor was subsequently inoculated using
the bacterial inoculum built up using a native bacterial

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M.E.L. Arrascue, J. van Niekerk / Hydrometallurgy 83 (2006) 9096

culture grown on arsenopyrite in the acid mine drainage


medium.
4. Description of the Tamboraque BIOX plant
Differential flotation of the zinc flotation tailings
produced two concentrates. The first product, a pyrite
concentrate was not expected to be treated in the BIOX
plant due to the low gold content. The arsenopyrite
concentrate was first remilled to 90% 200 mesh before
being pumped to the concentrate thickener for dewatering.
A concentrate stock tank was installed ahead of the
BIOX reactors to ensure that a constant feed rate can be
maintained to the BIOX reactors. Variable speed pumps
were used to pump the concentrate from the stock tank to
the BIOX splitter. The density of the slurry was
controlled to 20% solids by injecting mine water into
the suction end of the BIOX feed pumps. Both the
concentrate feed rate and the slurry density could be
controlled either manually or automatically by the PLC.
The nutrient solution was also pumped to the BIOX
feed splitter. The feed splitter split the feed equally
between the three primary BIOX reactors operating in
parallel. Overflow from the primary reactors flowed to
the first secondary reactor through launders. The three
secondary reactors were operated in series. The BIOX
reactors had an operating volume of 262 m3 each and
were constructed from stainless steel. Each reactor was
equipped with a mild steel, rubber lined agitator and a
stainless steel sparge ring.
Each reactor was also equipped with stainless steel
cooling coil baffles. The slurry temperature in each
reactor was automatically controlled at 40 C by passing
cold water from the Rmac River through the cooling
coils. The oxidation reactions are strongly exothermic
and constant cooling of the reactors was required even
when the ambient temperature decreased to below 6 C.
The oxidation of sulfide minerals also requires large
quantities of oxygen and low-pressure air was injected
into the reactors through the sparge rings to meet this
requirement. The Lightning A315 impellers were used
for the agitation and air dispersion. The A315 is a high
solidity, axial flow down pumping hydrofoil impeller
and is very efficient in applications where high gas rates
are used.
The pH was measured and controlled manually to
between 1.2 and 1.6 by the addition of either limestone
or sulfuric acid.
During biooxidation of the arsenopyrite concentrate,
iron, arsenic and sulfur are solubilized. These elements
were washed from the BIOX product through the
countercurrent decantation stages in a series of three

thickeners. High rate thickeners, with a cationic flocculant, were selected for this application. The washed
biooxidation product solids were pumped to the Carbonin-Leach (CIL) section for gold recovery using cyanide.
The acidic overflow liquor from the first thickener
was pumped to the neutralization section. The neutralization section consisted of six agitated and aerated
stainless steel reactors. Air was injected into all the
reactors to maintain oxidative conditions in the reactors.
A two-stage neutralization process was used. In the first
stage (tank 2) the pH of the slurry was increased to 5 by
the addition of limestone. The pH was then further
increased to 7 by the addition of lime in the last three
tanks. The neutralized effluent was combined with the
flotation tailings and pumped to the tailings treatment
section for disposal in the tailings dam [6,7].
5. First industrial operation period: 19982000
Commissioning of the industrial BIOX plant
commenced with the inoculation of the first primary
reactor using 10 m3 of active bacterial slurry from the
inoculum build-up phase. Semi-continuous feeding of
the reactor commenced once the bacteria in the reactor
was active. The overflow from the reactor was used to
fill the remaining two primary reactors. Continuous
feeding commenced once all the primary reactors were
active and the overflow from the primary reactors were
used to fill the secondary reactors. Acid mine drainage
(mine water) was used at all times as dilution water. The
plant did not reach the design capacity during the first
phase of operation due to concentrate shortages.
5.1. Phase 1: treatment of tailings dams 1 and 2
material
The inoculation and filling of the BIOX reactors
took considerably longer than initially scheduled. The
delays in the program were mainly caused by prolonged
power interruptions experienced during the commissioning period (up to 70 h/month) causing interruptions
in the air supply to the reactors. Concentrate shortages,
caused by difficulties experienced in the repulping of the
tailings material, also caused delays. The treatment of
the tailings dams were finally abandoned due to the
inability of maintaining a constant supply of ore and all
focus was shifted to phase 2 of the project.
5.2. Phase 2: treatment of ore from the Coricancha mine
Phase 1 was initially scheduled to last for 2 years, but
due to problems experienced during commissioning of

M.E.L. Arrascue, J. van Niekerk / Hydrometallurgy 83 (2006) 9096

the tailings dam reclamation system, the second phase


had to be started earlier. Phase 2 was therefore started
during July 1999. The full plant, including the lead and
zinc flotation sections were commissioned and fresh
concentrate from Coricancha mine were treated to
produce the lead and zinc concentrates. The tailings
were then floated to produce a bulk sulfide concentrate.
One of the problems experienced during this period
was the control of the thiocyanate concentration in the
feed to the BIOX reactors. Cyanide was added to the
lead flotation step to depress the pyrite and arsenopyrite.
The cyanide reacted with the concentrate to form
thiocyanate. Thiocyanate is toxic to the bacteria even
at very low concentrations and the concentrate had to be
washed to reduce the thiocyanate concentration to less
than 1 mg/l before the concentrate could be fed to the
BIOX reactors.
Limestone was also added to the concentrate as a
source of carbon (in to form of carbon dioxide) for the
bacteria. This led to an increase in the activity of the
bacteria and thus to the rate of oxidation in the primary
reactors.
Sulfide oxidation values in excess of 90% were
recorded during this period with corresponding gold
recoveries also in excess of 90%. A weight loss of 30
35% was measured across the BIOX reactors.
The neutralization section also performed satisfactory using limestone in the first three neutralization tanks
and lime in the second three reactors.
The mine was, however, experiencing significant
problems with grade control and dilution of the ore with
waste and this caused the feed grade to the plant to be
too low.
6. Second industrial operation period: 2002
During 2000, ownership of the mine and Tamboraque plant was transferred to Wiese Sudameris Leasing
and the operation of the plant was stopped.
The plant was kept under care and maintenance and
an active bacterial culture was maintained in the
laboratory bioreactors and the 10 m3 reactor. This
proved to be a good decision as the filling of the BIOX
reactors were accomplished in only 20 days after the
decision was taken to recommence operations early in
2002. It also took only a further 2 months for the plant to
reach the design capacity once all the reactors were full.
Power interruptions were still a major problem,
causing the dissolved oxygen in the reactors to drop too
low and thus resulting in fluctuations in the activity of
the bacteria. This problem was solved, in part, by the
installation of two smaller blowers. These blowers could

95

Fig. 2. Bioreactor at Tamboraque BIOX plant.

be started and operated from the standby power and was


able to maintain at least 1 mg/l dissolved oxygen in the
BIOX reactors. This reduced the recovery period
considerably and continuous feeding could be restarted
within a day after the power failure. The design capacity
could also be reached within a week from start-up.
The BIOX reactors were fed with a bulk flotation
concentrate (pyrite and arsenopyrite) with an average
gold grade of 0.7 oz/ton ( 21.8 g/ton). The gold
recovery from the biooxidation product was in excess of
85% with a retention time of between 4 and 6 days in the
BIOX reactors. The mine was, however, still experiencing dilution and grade control problems.
The control parameters in the BIOX reactors were
the same as during the previous period and the washing
of the concentrate was continued to ensure that the
thiocyanate concentration remained below 1 mg/l. The
washing of the concentrate also reduced the foaming on
the BIOX reactors due to the removal of flotation
reagents from the concentrate. Due to the use of mine
water for dilution, it was still not necessary to add
sulfuric acid to the reactors to maintain the pH. The
addition of limestone slurry into the primary reactors as
a source of carbon for the bacteria was also continued.
All the reagent addition rates were optimized during
this period and in each case a saving of up to 20% could
be realized. This included BIOX nutrients and
limestone in the neutralization section. Due to environmental reasons, an additional neutralization tank was
installed to treat excess acid mine drainage from other
levels of the mine (Fig. 2).
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Mr. Pieter van
Aswegen, Senior BIOX Manager from Gold Fields
Limited for permission to present this paper and to Mr.

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M.E.L. Arrascue, J. van Niekerk / Hydrometallurgy 83 (2006) 9096

Hennie Marais who suddenly passed away in 2000 for


his constant support. Also to Mr. Cesar Loayza for the
metallurgical information and support.
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