Pemurnian Batuan Emas Ramah Lingkungan Menggunakan Teknik Sink and Flotation dengan Media Tribromometana

Abstract

Separation of gold from its ore by sink and float method with tribromomethane as a medium is considered economical and environmentally friendly due to the absence of Mercury used in the process. The sink and float technique is based on the specific gravity difference among each constituents. The ore was initially cleaned, washed, crushed and then sieved to obtain various powder sizes, equivalent to 20, 50, and 80 mesh size. The characterization was performed by means of XRD and XRF analysis to determine the initial gold content. Afterward, the ore were processed by using 300 ml tribromomethane, so that two phases, namely the sinking and floating phase, will be formed. Each phase was then undergone weighing, drying and purifying or destructuring by using aqua regia. The results show that the optimum yield of 5.87403% with a gold content (Au) of 0.25976%, was obtained in the sinking phase for 80 mesh size with 3 M tribromomethane concentration and in the floating phase having 0.000001756% with gold content of 0.0000001568%.