The unidentified suspects were armed with a rifle when they
attacked a security guard on duty before breaking into the carbon room.
The police said in a statement on X that on December 22,
2024, a case of a robbery occurred at a mine in Bindura where eight suspects
stole gold-loaded carbon valued at US $36 000 after assaulting the security
guard who was on duty.
“Anyone with information to report at any nearest Police
Station,” said the Police in a statement.
It is just carbon (like charcoal) that has gold stuck to
it. Gold in Ore: When gold is found in the ground, it’s mixed with other
materials, so you can’t just pick up gold chunks. It’s in a form that’s hard to
get to.
Using Carbon to Catch Gold: To separate the gold from the
rest of the materials, one common method is to use a special kind of carbon.
This carbon is very porous (kind of like a sponge), which allows it to “catch”
or “trap” tiny particles of gold from a solution where the gold is dissolved.
Gold-Loaded Carbon: Once the carbon has trapped the gold
particles, it’s called gold-loaded carbon. It’s like a sponge holding gold.
Gold Recovery: To get the gold back from the carbon, the
gold-loaded carbon is treated in a way that lets the gold come off, and then it
can be refined and turned into pure gold.
In short, gold-loaded carbon is carbon that’s been used to
collect gold from a solution, often during a mining process.
Why is gold-loaded carbon valuable?
Efficient Gold Extraction: In the mining industry, gold is
often found in low concentrations in ore (rock) and must be separated from
other materials.
The carbon used in gold-loaded carbon is highly effective
at capturing tiny particles of gold from a liquid solution, making it a crucial
part of processes like Carbon-in-Leach (CIL) or Carbon-in-Pulp (CIP).
This allows miners to extract gold efficiently, even from
ores that contain only small amounts of gold.
Cost-Effective: The process of using carbon to capture gold
(through adsorption) is relatively inexpensive compared to other methods of
gold extraction.
Once the gold is bound to the carbon, it can be easily
removed and refined, which saves money for the mining operation.
Recovery of Precious Gold: Gold is a rare and precious
metal with high value, so anything that helps recover gold from ore more
effectively or efficiently has intrinsic value.
The carbon itself may not be valuable until it holds the
gold, and once it’s loaded with gold, it can be treated to recover the metal.
Reusability: After the gold is recovered from the carbon,
the carbon can often be reused in the process, which makes it an economical
material for gold extraction.
Gold-loaded carbon is valuable because it is an effective
tool for extracting gold from ore in a cost-efficient way, helping to recover
precious gold that would otherwise be difficult to access. Chronicle
Dr Dotito 
