Australian researchers producing cyanide-free gold with Barrick in Nevada

Eureka! A Solid-Gold Solution to Make Archimedes Proud

By Roger Nicoll
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization
Canberra, Australia
Tuesday, June 16, 2015

"Eureka!" cried the ancient Greek scholar Archimedes as he (allegedly) ran naked through the streets of Syracuse. He'd just discovered a method to prove the purity of gold by measuring its density, and was decidedly proud of his finding.

Thankfully, these days we favor blog posts to running naked through the streets when we make important new discoveries… but it doesn't mean we can't still give a good shout:

"Eureka! We've found a way to produce cyanide-free gold!"

We've been working with an American company, Barrick, at their Goldstrike plant in Nevada to produce the first gold bar that doesn't involve cyanide extraction. Cyanide is, of course, highly toxic and an environmental hazard. The new process we're so excited about uses a chemical called thioshulphate, which will greatly reduce the environmental risks and costs associated with gold production.

Thiosulphate has long been seen as a potential alternative to cyanide for liberating gold from ores, but it has proved difficult to master -- until now. Thanks to the new process, which incorporates patented technology we've developed with Barrick, the company will be able to process and profit from 4 million tonnes of stockpiled ore that was uneconomic to process by traditional methods. ...

... For the remainder of the report:

http://csironewsblog.com/2015/06/16/eureka-a-solid-gold-solution-to-make...