Recovery of Gold from Electronic Scrap by Hydrometallurgical Process

A series of processes has been developed to recover the gold from electronic scrap containing about 200~600 ppm Au. First, mechanical beneficiation including shredding, crushing and screening was employed. Results showed that 99 percent of gold component leaves in the fraction of under 1mm of crushed scrap and its concentration was enriched to about 800 ppm without incineration. The crushed scrap was leached in 50% aqua regia solution and gold was completely dissolved at $60^{\circ}C$ withing 2 hours. Other valuable metals such as silver, copper, nickel and iron were also dissolved. The resulting solution was boiled to remove nitrous compounds in the leachate. Finally, a newly designed electrolyzer was tested to recover the gold metal. More than 99% of gold and silver were recovered within an hour by electrowinning process.