Continuous leaching-adsorption pilot plant of artisanal and small-scale gold mining.

Generally, artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) in Indonesia uses the amalgamated mercury process. Most of the respondents from ASGM experienced mercury poisoning. An alternative non-mercury gold processing is cyanidation. In this work, an actual practice cyanidation process of local artisanal gold processing in Wonogiri, Indonesia, was studied. The paper presents the practices of local artisanal gold processing using the cyanide process, their weaknesses in the process, and ways to diminish the problem. The paper also highlighted the self-designed in a continuous mode leaching adsorption pilot plant. Preliminary results showed that leaching in the pilot plant leaching-adsorption process produced better gold content than the ASGM process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]