Cyanide is lethal in certain amount of doses, but we are still using it many tonnes every day to extract 0,05g of gold from a ton of rock, since cyanidation is the best available practices in gold production currently concerning recovery rate and profitability. The mining company, however should beware of the massive fine and environmental risks, cost if lost, if there is an accident spill. The environmental costs calculated might not be threaten enough for a multi-international gold producer which has revenue over few hundred million euros. Nevertheless, the money pay for recovering the economic loss and for environmental rehabilitation is not enough for life-supporting ecosystem and precious clean water that it is declining now.
In order to avoid damaging the environment, the mining company have to ensure the use of cyanide and its management reach community expectations and maintains a level of responsible environmental and social stewardship consistent with the Cyanide Code, and leading environmental management. Also, the lifecycle of the whole mining process, as well as the rehabilitation is essential for sustainable mining.
Yet, only the tightened regulation will force the change of cyanide free leaching agent, sustainability alone might not be convincing enough to make a pronounced change in the near future. The successful large-scale application of thiosulphate leaching of this year would be part of the driving force, but only limit to niche application.
In conclude, the cyanidation will remain the dominant solution of gold production even though it is toxic, and gold is needed to maintain the economic in the world. Sometimes, it is thoughtful for us and for the companies to reflect the long-term value of clean water and gold for our future since complete safe use of cyanide is not ensure even under functional management system.
Also, development of alternative is a must. For the further development of this work, in order to support a comprehensive investment decision making process, regarding the potential benefits of cyanidation and thiosulphate leaching, life cycle cost (LCC) calculation could be done in the future.
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APPENDIX
Appendix Ⅰ List of Accident
Year Country Accidental Spill Amount
1980 Japan Earthquake resulted in cyanide entering a stream from gold mine. The spill killed all life in the stream
- 89/90 USA Nevada 8 cyanide leaks over 2 years, releasing
900lbs cyanide
68300 l USA South Carolina Cyanide solution leakage under usual
weather
3 million l
1992 USA Colorado 3000 gallons of toxic/min Estimation
24900l 1995 USA Guyana 80 gallons of cyanide laden tailings into
river
22l Australia At the tailings dam, thousands of water
life were killed -
1997 USA Montana Contamination of groundwater
Substantial wildlife death - 1998 Kyrgywtan NaCN release to surface water from
truck-4 deaths
2 ton USA ,South Dakota Cyanide tailings spilled from
Homestake Mine
2001 Ghana Spillage of thousands of cubic meters of wastewater from mine with cyanide and heavy metals to River Asuman. (Tailing dam failure)
-
Ghana Second cyanide spillage in a swamp area
- China Liquid cyanide leaked into Luohe River 11ton 2002 Australia Cyanide solution was allegedly releases
on the roadside after a delivery truck left a mine
-
USA Nevada Twin Creeks Mine spillage Spilled into an Arizona creek
6700l 2003 Honduras Cyanide solution was discharges into
Lara River
1200l Nicaragua Cyanide Spill to Bambana River -
- No statement
References:
Rainforest Information Centre, 2013. Cyanide Incidences. [Online] Available at:
<http://www.rainforestinfo.org.au/gold/spills.htm> [Accessed 15 March 2014]
Cyanide free Romania, n.d. [Online] Available at:
<http://www.bancyanide.ro/?x=2628&cmd[118]=c-1-b399ff91d0a0c59b50d20abb17d1b0f1&cmd[123]=x-123-2628> [Accessed 15 March 2014]
Ghana Spillage from newly constructed pipelines
-
2004 Australia Cyanide released into Lake Cowal -
Papua New Guinea Misima mine -
New Zealand Cyanide solution leakage 360l
Romania Cyanide contaminated to Siret River 10ton Ghana Spill occurred from tailing dam, entered
to river Aprepre
- 2005 Laos The cyanide spill occurred at Phu Bia
gold mine
-
Ghana Cyanide spill to River Kubekro -
Philippines Spilling of contaminated cyanide to nearby water- Australian company of Lafayette Mining
5m3
Romania Borsa mine -
2006 Ghana Failure of tailing dam caused spilling to Ajoo stream
- 2007 Australia A road train tipped over the containers
of sodium cyanide to the roadside and into a non-flowing watercourse
-