The Incredible Future Tech of Gold Smelting

Technology  

Apart from being treasured for its own essential purity and beauty, and being a global standard of value, gold is used in many electronics for its conductivity and resistance to tarnishing. Gold continues to be mined worldwide, but producers are looking to more sustainable technologies as they extract and process this precious resource.

There are three steps that are involved in the making of all minerals for current industrial and commercial applications—gold included. These include exploration, mining, post mining and production. These three components of the process tend to overlap most of the time. With time, many advances have been made in the world of mining and it keeps getting better each day. Below are some of the changes that are taking the sector by storm.

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Reef Boring Technology

This is a technology that makes it possible for new ore to be tapped from old mines. Not only is the method a simpler way to extract gold, but it is also the best way to improve the sustainability of the gold mines. When commenting on the development of this technology, AngloGold Ashanti Limited, the third largest gold producer stated that they could increase the life of their mines in South Africa by up to 30 years. The method is automatic, which means that it will cut down on labor costs and there will be the possibility of mining being done round the clock.

Fumeless Refining

There have been increasing concerns about environmental sustainability and the mining. Fumeless smelting is a technology that condenses the process of gold smelting into one simple step. As a result:

• No toxic fumes are produced during the smelting process
• There is a reduced amount of toxic waste coming from the smelting process.
• It brings in the possibility of no acids used in smelting.

The possibility of smelting gold without creating any toxic waste is made a reality by this process.

Did you know?
There are about 10 troy ounces of gold (or about three-fifths of a pound) per ton of smartphones on the planet.

Wohlwill Processing

One of the main challenges that come from the gold smelting process is the possibility of getting a purity of more than 99 percent with a single step smelting and processing. With this invention, it will be possible to get up to 99.9 percent pure gold with a one-step purification process. The step gold refining systems will make it possible to get extremely high grade of gold. Luckily there is tons of equipment, like that from Ceramic Technology Inc. to help make gold processing as easy as possible.

Improved Electrolytic Gold Refining

The electrolytic refining system makes it simpler to remove any impurities that could be in the gold. The process of refining gold has always been tedious and involved many steps. However, with the new process, it has become much simpler to clean up the gold with a one step process. By simply immersing the gold you want refined in the system and adding nitric acid, you will get all the impurities out.

The world of gold smelting and refining is bound to get better with these technologies. Not only will smelting be simpler, but it will also be green. It will be really cool to see how it continues to advance in years to come.

By  Kara Masterson

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