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Reflected-light microscope and SEM/EMP observations on the behaviour of aurostibite (AuSb2) during amalgamation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2018

Jacques Jedwab ,
Jose Mendes Chuva  and
Eric Poot
Jacques Jedwab
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Géochimie et de Minéralogie Appliquée, CP 160/02, Université Libre de Bruxelles, 50 Avenue Roosevelt, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium
Jose Mendes Chuva
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Géochimie et de Minéralogie Appliquée, CP 160/02, Université Libre de Bruxelles, 50 Avenue Roosevelt, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium
Eric Poot
Affiliation:
Société Minière et Industrielle du Kivu (SOMINKI), Kamituga (Kivu) Zaire
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Abstract

The Mobale gold mine (Kivu, Zaire) has been worked since 1923, but the presence of aurostibite in the ore was recognized only very recently. The discovery of the mineral has also led to the recognition of its heretofore unsuspected reactivity during the amalgamation ore dressing operations. At the surface of aurostibite a layer of up to 30 μm thickness forms which has an overall brown colour and a low reflectivity, and is composed of several variegated, concentric zones. These zones contain gold, mercury, antimony and oxygen, with traces of iron and arsenic. Oxygen is present with a concentration range of 2-4 wt.% (20-30 at.%). The zones form at the expense of aurostibite, according to micrographical criteria. In complex grains formed of gold-arsenopyrite-galena-aurostibite, only aurostibite is affected by the formation of the external brown zones. Later pure gold veneers are deposited on the outermost surface of the brown layers during the processing of the ore. The newly discovered features of processed aurostibite could explain some of the difficulties met with during the dressing of antirnonian gold ores.

Keywords

amalgamationaurostibiteore dressingZaire mineralogygold-mercury-antimony-oxygen compound
Type
Research Article
Information
Mineralogical Magazine , Volume 56 , Issue 385 , December 1992 , pp. 561 - 565
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1992

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