Sodium cyanide is also known as cyanide of sodium, cymag,
hydrocyanic acid sodium salt. It is a white powder or solution in
water. Liquid cyanide contains *0 per cent cyanide while the solid
is *8 per cent pure
Sodium cyanide (NaCN) is a chemical used overseas predominantly in
metal plating and chemical applications such as dyes and
pharmaceuticals. it isalso principally used for the
gold mining industry to extract gold from gold bearing ore using
the carbon-in-leach and carbon-in-pulp processes with *8 per cent
of gold production dependent on it. These processes enable
commercial recovery of gold at very low concentrations (down to
just 0.*5gm per tonne or 0.*5 ppm of soil or mine tailings).
Between **0 and **0 tonnes of sodium cyanide (valued at ca.
US$0.7m) is required for each tonne of gold (valued at say $*3m)
produced so that cyanide represents around 8 per cent of the value
of gold produced.
