This technical note presents the preliminary experimental results at laboratory bench scale-up for the study involving the usage of commercial organic extractant CYANEX 921® (trioctylfosfine oxide) diluted in xylene for cyanide extraction from pure alkaline aqueous solution with a chemical composition similar to a typical cyanidation liquor of a gold ore. The experimental results for only one contact stage showed that an increase of the CYANEX 921® concentration in the organic phase improved the percent of cyanide extraction. Besides, the zinc presence in the feed aqueous phase as complexing agent for cyanide also improved the cyanide extraction (38.48%) as compared to the result for the experiment without zinc (35.50%). The highest values for percent of cyanide extraction were obtained at the initial pH of the aqueous phase equals to 9.0.
cyanide; recovery; solvent extraction
