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7 results for “Cyanide leaching” in Industry
Industry · 7 August 2026
After the Cyanide
…ast shift is the part of the industry with the longest timeline and the least coverage. · Cyanide is used because it is the only reagent that dissolves gold selectively at industrial scale and low cost; the risk lies in handling and storage, not in the chemistry being exotic. · F…
Tomas Herrera · 16 min read
Industry · 20 August 2026
The Refiner's Ledger
…the gold ever leaves the mine site. Crushed and milled ore is treated, typically through cyanide leaching or, for higher-grade material, gravity and flotation methods, to produce a gold-bearing solution or concentrate, which is then processed on site to produce doré — a crude al…
Tomas Herrera · 17 min read
Industry · 28 July 2026
Urban Mining: The Richest Gold Ore on Earth Is in Your Old Phone
…electronics at home? You should not attempt it. The established routes use strong acids, cyanide or high-temperature smelting, and the informal versions of these processes are responsible for severe heavy-metal and dioxin exposure in communities where they are practised. This ar…
Tomas Herrera · 16 min read
Industry · 6 August 2026
The Scrap Trade
…· Recovery at this end of the chain uses much the same underlying chemistry — smelting or leaching followed by electrolytic refining — but the front end differs substantially, because boards must first be shredded, sorted and often pre-treated to concentrate the metal-bearing fra…
Ingrid Sørensen · 16 min read
Industry · 7 August 2026
How Fake Gold Is Detected
Counterfeiting gold is not about making something that looks right. It is about defeating a specific test, and the industry's defences are an escalating conversation between forgers and instruments. ·…
Tomas Herrera · 16 min read
Industry · 2 July 2026
Nine Nines: Inside a Modern Gold Refinery
A doré bar arrives at 85 per cent purity and leaves at 99.99. Between those two numbers sit chlorine gas, aqua regia, an electrolytic cell and a chain of custody that is now as valuable as the metal i…
Tomas Herrera · 19 min read
Industry · 4 August 2026
The Gold Inside Your Phone
Industrial demand is the quietest third of the gold market: a few tenths of a gram per handset, multiplied by billions of devices, chosen not for prestige but because nothing else conducts as reliably…
Tomas Herrera · 18 min read
