ABSTRACT
Cyanidation of gold was a milestone in gold metallurgy, which can be considered a golden development in the processing of gold bearing ores. Cyanidation has been a tremendous help in gold extraction because the previously used technology of amalgamation and chlorination yielded only 55%–65% extraction efficiency from the ores containing finer particles. The gold cyanidation process for its extraction from ore bodies involves heterogeneous reactions at the interfaces of solid and liquid. The rate of gold leaching in cyanide solution increases linearly with respective increase in cyanide concentration until attaining the maximum point. Particle size is a vital factor that affects gold cyanidation. A gold bearing ore requires fine grinding to liberate the encapsulated particles of precious metal from the ores and make them amenable to be leached in cyanide solution. Gold mostly occurs in native form, along with varying amounts of coexisting silver.
