Sustainable Mining and Metallurgy

With the cyanidation heap leaching residue in a gold mine in the arid zone in Western China as the object of study, acidic & water leaching toxicity tests were conducted to study the pollution characteristics. The test results indicates that while the legacy residue is hazardous, the leaching toxicity (acidity) does not reach the leaching toxicity standard for hazardous waste. The reason is that after years of natural degradation, the cyanide content has decreased. The water leaching test results show that the residue is typical of China’s Class II general industrial solid waste.