PLATSOL

PLATSOL™ is an SGS trademarked technology that is a high temperature chloride-assisted pressure leaching procedure. It is particularly suitable for orebodies that have a wide variety of pay metals, especially PGM, gold and base metals.

The PLATSOL™ process for precious metal and gold recovery can improve your bottom line by recovering all pay metals in an ore using one leaching process. In some gold deposits, it can also help you to comply with environmental regulations because cyanide is not used.

The PLATSOL™ process enables you to successfully recover a variety of metals from lean orebodies which may not be economically feasible if other recovery processes are used. Examples include:

• Lean concentrates that contain several base metals, relatively low concentrations of precious metals and low levels of sulfide
• Dirty concentrates that contain deleterious elements that incur smelter penalties or have environmental repercussions (e.g. arsenic and mercury)
• Concentrates that contain high levels of chromium and magnesium
• Isolated sites where the size of the mineral resource is too small to justify the capital cost of a stand-alone smelter 
• Remote sites where the project economics are significantly improved by the ability to produce and sell LME-grade metal immediately rather than generate large amounts of concentrate which must be shipped and smelted elsewhere

The PLATSOL™ process is carried out in an autoclave at temperatures above 200°Celsius. During the recovery process, gold and PGMs are solubilised as chloro-complexes by the addition of a small amount of chloride salt to the slurry. Base metal sulfides are oxidized to soluble metal sulfate complexes and sulfuric acid. Gold and PGMs can be recovered directly after leaching by adsorption or precipitation with sulfide ions. After gold and PGM recovery, base metals are recovered through precipitation, ion exchange or solvent extraction - electrowinning.

A distinct advantage of PLATSOL™ is that it consists of standard, proven traditional technologies that are in use in mines around the world. Although technology heavy, it is a viable technique for lean or complex ores, including those that are rich in arsenic.

SGS offers unique solutions for your metal recovery needs. Contact us early in your proposal and planning stage to assess whether PLATSOL™ or another SGS pressure leaching or ambient leaching process can improve the bottom line and environmental footprint of your metal recovery operation.