The application possibilities of gold(I) extraction from cyanide media by three primary amines, Primene 81R, Primene JMT and tridecylamine, has been studied taking in account several variables such as temperature, amine and initial metal concentrations, aqueous ionic strength and organic phase diluent; the selectivity of the extraction systems is also described. On the basis of graphical and numerical treatment an extraction mechanism for gold has been proposedThe authors are grateful to the DGICYT (Spain) for financial support of Project PB89-
0021 and to Dr. F.A. L6pez for assistance in obtaining some of the IR data.Peer reviewe
