Current Situation of Gold Leaching Industry
- Over the past century, 85% of the world's gold has been extracted using sodium cyanide, and sodium cyanide occupies a dominant position in the current gold industry.
- Sodium cyanide is a highly toxic chemical with a low lethal dose (0.2g taken by mouth) and rapid action. It is a chemical strictly monitored by the United Nations Chemical Weapons Control Agency.
- Sodium cyanide is often easy to cause safety and environmental pollution incidents during transportation, storage, and use, which poses a serious threat to people's lives and brings huge losses to national property.
2015 .08.12 Tianjing Port Explosive,China
- In the 2015 Tianjin Port explosion due to maloperations of chemicals in the warehouse, 700 tons of sodium cyanide was contained in the warehouse, and the scene was terrifying and dangerous. Imagine how terrible it would be if 700 tons of sodium cyanide leaked, causing water pollution or reacting with acid to release highly toxic hydrogen cyanide gas.
2000 Baia Mare Cyanide Spill, Romania
- Romania-Gold Mine Cyanide Pollution Incident
- On January 30, 2000, a gold mine sewage sedimentation pond in Romania was flooded due to the surge of accumulated water. More than 100,000 liters of sewage containing heavy metals such as cyanide, copper and lead was flushed to the Tisza River, a tributary of the Danube, and downstream. It quickly merged into the Danube River and spread downstream, causing a large number of river fish deaths and the river's water was not drinkable. Hungary and other countries suffered from it, and the national economy and people's lives were dramatically affected to a certain extent.
1998 Barskoon River Cyanide Spill, Kyrgyz
- On May 20, 1998, a truck from the jointly owned Kumtor gold-mining company carrying sodium cyanide used in cleaning gold overturned on the road and rolled into the river above the village of Barskoon, spilling some 1.7 tons of sodium cyanide (around 935 kilograms of cyanide).
- This small stream, used by the local population for irrigation and drinking water purposes, flows into Lake Issyk-Kul, a major tourist resort. As a result of the accident, some 1700 - 1800 kg of sodium cyanide (NaCN) was released directly into the river, some 8 km upstream the village of Barskoon.