Alteration of sulfide ore of the Samolazovskoe deposit, Aldan shield, in an experimental bioleaching heap

Abstract

The article contains the results of a mineralogical study of sulfide ores of the Samolazovskoe deposit (Aldan Shield) and the products of their experimental bacterial oxidation in a heap. Pyrite and marcasite are the major minerals of primary ores. They form fine-grained crystalline and micrometer-grained to cryptocrystalline aggregates. Sphalerite, galena, chalcopyrite, pyrrhotite, fahlore, luzonite, bournonite and other Sb sulfosalts, antimonite, arsenopyrite are minor minerals. Tiemannite, coloradoite, calaverite, hessite, petzite and native gold are rare. The ores in the experimental biooxidation heap are mostly altered in its upper parts. The secondary products of the alteration of ores include fine-grained Mg- and S-bearing calcite, smectites after feldspars, and films of Fe3+oxyhydroxides on the surface and in fractures of ore. In the lower part of the heap, technogenic processes are weak and mainly include the formation of gypsum . The sulfides are preserved throughout the heap vertical profile including very fine crystalline, colloform and botryoidal aggregates with a nonstoichiometric ratio of cations and anions and the presence of As, Ni and Cu. The botryoidal aggregates of the Fe disulfides contain galena, which forms a “microseptary” structure, which was not found in primary ores. The high-fineness native gold was found in assemblage with coloradoite and calaverite as inclusions in fine-grained aggregates of Fe disulfides. The conclusion is made on an insufficient impact of the bioleaching of refractory ores in the irrigation regime used, and forming of the secondary minerals that prevent the extraction of gold. Keywords: Samolazovskoe deposit, Aldan Shield, coloradoite, calaverite, native gold, refractory ores, bio-oxidation.