The Safe and Effective Use of Cyanide Society for Mining, Metallurgy ...
Role of Cyanide in Ore Processing. A process called "Cyanidation", or cyanide leaching, has been the dominant gold extraction technology since the 1970s. In this process sodium cyanide, in a dilute solution of ranging from 100 ppm to 500 ppm or % to % cyanide, is used to selectively dissolve gold from ore.