Today’s “gold rush” is both made up of much less gold and a process which greatly reduces the ability to rush. Today gold is only being found as a very low concentration in ores, many believe it to typically fall bellow ½ of a percent of the ore it is being extracted from. At a miniscule amount like that you would think there to be no way to separate the minerals in any timely fashion. That is where the big, sometimes harmful but many times magnificent, world of chemistry comes into play. Science has developed chemical called cyanide which in simple terms, dissolves the gold so it can be separated from the ore. Only when mixed with oxygen (pretty easy to do on earth) is the chemical able to dissolve the gold with a chemical solution only appearing at about .035% of the total liquid applied. Many other chemicals have been used and tested for the extraction of gold including: chloride, bromide, and thiosulfate. But due to greater health and environmental concerns that these other chemicals cause, cyanide has been by far the most common chemical used in the gold manufacturing since its first use in the late 19th century (cyanidecode.org).
When cyanide enters the environment it has different effects in different elements. In the gaseous state it is carried through the air at levels that have a leave a very limited concern by government standards. This cyanide, and those particles which are swept up by wind or washed away in runoff, is not seen as an issue in soil or water. This is because in soil there are several processes to remove cyanide and in water it has not been shown to build up in fish bodies. The issue comes in those areas where high concentrations of the chemical are present. This takes us on a little journey to the one place that most unwanted things are taken, the landfill. Here the concentrations of the chemicals are so high that organisms that could normally change the cyanide into other chemical forms cannot; the chemical slowly makes its way down into ground water and soil.
HOW CAN YOU BE EXPOSED?
You can breathe in the air which carried the chemical, drink contaminated water, interact with saturated soil, or eat foods containing the pollutant. It is thought that people who live closer to hazardous waste sites, landfills, and mining camps are more susceptible to contamination. So wait; living next to places where toxic chemicals are used could be harmful? Well I am sure to many of you this is not anything new to your knowledge. However, what about those people who work in those plants? The people who are so lucky to have a job in this market that they take the low salaries and bad living conditions just so their families have a warm home. Who could possibly help these people by just speaking up about the way we process gold? YOU! We all are aware of the fact that those with large sums of money often time have the resources and power to get their point across and win their battles. But history has shown that grassroots efforts can change the way this country is run and so I ask you to head over to our website and follow the links to sign the pledge to made “green gold” a reality.
PUBLIC HEALTH STATEMENT:
http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp8-c1.pdf
Government Website and toxicological profile for Cyanide:
http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp.asp?id=72&tid=19
~Lindsay Hofer
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