Cyanide degradation with hydrogen peroxide

The problem

• Gold leach in tropical region  with ~1.5m rain in ~3 months.
• Potential accumulation of 3,000,000 m3/y cyanide containing effluent water.
• Need to detoxify up to 600 m3/hr for discharge to river.
• “Clear” effluent to be treated
• Effluent contained ~ +100ppm cyanide + few ppm copper.

The solution : detoxification with H2O2 with following results

• Free cyanide below detection level
• WAD cyanide less than 0.1 ppm
• Increased gold recovery with carbon columns paid for detoxification