Investigating the feasibility of using agricultural waste as an adsorbent of gold ions in small scale gold processing plants

The recovery of precious metals like gold is increasing each day due to its high market prices along with diverse applications. Bio-sorption represents a biotechnological innovation as well as a cost effective and excellent tool for recovery of precious metals from aqueous solutions. This study offers an overview of a recent scenario of bio-sorption studies carried out on the use of some promising bio-sorbents which could serve as an economical means for recovering gold for small scale gold processing plants. Results show that activated carbon (control) has the highest adsorption efficiency since it contains more active site on the carbon molecules. The activated maize corn cob had the highest adsorption efficiency (77.09%) compared to all other agricultural adsorbents. Banana peels showed a significant adsorption efficiency of 56.87%.