Optimizing the alkaline oxidation pretreatment of a refractory gold ore using taguchi orthogonal array method

This study investigates the alkaline oxidation pretreatment process of Zarshuran refractory gold ore. Taguchi method-orthogonal array design (OAD) is applied to evaluate and optimize the influence of five main factors including solution pH, aeration rate, agitation speed, temperature, and oxidation time. In order to establish relationship between the gold dissolution rate and influential factors, a linear regression model with R² of 0.9706 is fitted to experimental data. The results indicated that in the range studied, the agitation speed does not have any significant impact on the gold recovery, while oxidation time and temperature were the most significant factors. Au recovery increased with increasing the aeration rate, pretreatment time, and temperature as well as decreasing the solution pH. Using Taguchi orthogonal array optimization technique (OAOT), the maximum gold recovery was about 96.72%. Also, the optimal conditions were 11 for solution pH, 150 ml min⁻¹ for aeration rate, 240 rpm for agitation rate, 50 °C for temperature, and 24 h for oxidation time. (paper)