Gold cyanidation is a metallurgical

Metallurgy

Metallurgy is a domain of materials science that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their intermetallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are called alloys. It is also the technology of metals: the way in which science is applied to their practical use...

 technique for extracting gold

Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...

 from low-grade ore

Ore

An ore is a type of rock that contains minerals with important elements including metals. The ores are extracted through mining; these are then refined to extract the valuable element....

 by converting the gold to a water soluble coordination complex. It is the most commonly used process for gold extraction

Gold extraction

Gold extraction or recovery from its ores may require a combination of comminution, mineral processing, hydrometallurgical, and pyrometallurgical processes to be performed on the ore....

. Production of reagents for mineral processing to recover gold, copper, zinc and silver represents approximately 13% of cyanide consumption globally, with the remaining 87% of cyanide used in other industrial processes such as plastics, adhesives, and pesticides.