Toxic sodium cyanide has been used in gold mining since 1887, and it remains the primary reagent in use for gold processing today because it allows for efficient extraction of gold from low-grade ore.

Extracting gold from ore is a poisonous business. The most common method is cyanide leaching, where cyanide salts in solution are used to suck the gold out from its ore. You get gold, but you also get ...

In the gold-mining process, the precious metal is often extracted from low-grade ore in a technique known as gold cyanidation. As its name suggests, the process utilizes highly-poisonous cyanide, some ...

Dear EarthTalk: Most gold mining operations use cyanide to extract gold from surrounding rock. What are the environmental implications of this, and are there alternatives? --J. Pelton, via e-mail ...

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... LEADVILLE — Millions of tons of waste from decades-old mining operations sit in the hills east of town. The brown and orange piles of abandoned ore rise 30 ...

In mining, cyanide spills can cause fish kills and other problems, most recently at a river in Ghana last week downstream from a gold mine. While cyanide in mining is nothing new, using heap leaching ...

The public has until Feb. 6 to comment on the proposed Grassy Mountain Gold and Silver Mine near Vale in Malheur County Oregonians have roughly two months to weigh in on a Nevada company’s plans to ...

For decades, 30-foot high piles of mining waste have punctuated the horizon of a picturesque Colorado city, separating its main drag of Victorian-style houses from some of the state's tallest ...

Even though the Colorado Supreme Court last week rejected Summit County’s ban on cyanide-based gold mining, no one is expecting a rush of mining applications any time soon. “I think the chances are ...

Dublin, Sept. 15, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "2025 Gold Potassium Cyanide Market Outlook Report: Industry Size, Market Shares Data, Insights, Growth Trends, Opportunities, Competition 2024 to 2032" ...