What i find astonishing is the lack of regulatory oversight here. It is totally in everyone's self interest. Yet here we are with fools playing at been fools.
What i find even more nauseating is that this chemical is easily neutralized to been harmless with the addition of a simple reagent. The only problem is that it produces a purple dye which is harmless but obviously unsightly in a river.
So here we are creating mess after mess year after year. Storage has never worked out because dams must fail. Yet neutralization and steady leagage could clean them all up.;
Toxic Cyanide Pollution From Extracting Gold Is Widespread in China
A Chinese staff shows off a gold bullion with a design of the rat in Beijing 17 December 2007. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/1733371-toxic-cyanide-pollution-from-extracting-gold-is-widespread-in-china/
After two devastating
chemical explosions in the city of Tianjin on Aug. 12, Chinese
authorities revealed the presence of about 700 tons of sodium cyanide at
the site. Some of it is thought to have spilled into the surrounding
environment, causing angry responses and questions. Many wanted to know
what such large quantities of toxic material are used for. Wang Yang,
the editor of Tencent Weibo’s “Daily in Touch” channel, attempted to answer the question. The following article is an abridged treatment based on his post of Aug. 15.
Cyanide is a well-known, highly toxic
chemical. A tiny amount can kill a person. But few people know that it
is used in huge quantities in modern gold mining. Almost all gold
producers depend on it to separate gold from other ores. Cyanide is also
an essential reactant in jewelry plating.
China is the world’s largest producer of gold. The enormous amount of cyanide used in gold mining in China is shocking. China Gold News
once ran a detailed report about a gold production company in Inner
Mongolia. It indicated that the company mined 23.1 million tons of ore
in 2014, producing 5.1 tons of gold. To support its production capacity,
the company consumed over 2,000 tons of sodium cyanide each month,
which is equivalent to approximately 4.7 tons of sodium cyanide for every 10kg
of gold. Taking into account the many smaller gold mining companies and
the jewelry industry, China’s annual consumption of cyanide is
shocking.
Lax Supervision
Modern industry has developed a
sophisticated procedure for cyanide degradation. China, too, is aware of
the technology. One way is to effect degradation during the earlier
phase of separating gold from the other ores, and then achieve natural
degradation by exposing the depleted tailings to the sun at the end of
the process. Isolation and anti-infiltration measures are essential. The
natural degradation process of cyanide is fast. With good contingency
plans, and by isolating people, animals and important water sources, it
is possible to prevent catastrophic consequences.
But without strict environmental protection measures, toxic leaks may cause ecological disasters. In June 2013, China Economic published a report titled Shaanxi Maanqiao Tailing Warehouse Approved for Licensing Despite Multitude of Potential Dangers.
The article stated at the beginning that Shaanxi Maanqiao Ecological
Mining Ltd. has produced 12,000 tons of gold each year, while the
tailings have caused pollution and safety problems. Villagers said there
were sediments in their well water and people dared not to drink it,
for fear of cyanide poisoning. In addition, the protective plastic
liners in the tailings warehouses were damaged; so how could it achieve
anti-infiltration, the article questioned.
Another famous case involves Zijin
Mining. As early as the end of 2006, a dam collapsed at their Shuyindong
Gold Mine in Guizhou Province. About 200,000 cubic meters of waste
potassium cyanide leaked out of the tailing warehouse, threatening two
freshwater reservoirs downstream.
With lax supervision and severe local
protectionism, it is indeed worrisome to trust in corporate
self-discipline for environmental protection. In fact, it is common for
some companies to ignore environmental protection all together in order
to reduce costs.
Illegal Mining
You could say that registered
businesses still follow certain management procedures and are concerned
about rules and regulations. But illegally run mining companies are a
mess across China; even death cases have been reported.
In May 2015, Beijing News
published a report titled “1,000 Meter-Long Gold Cave With Hidden
Underground Gold Factory Discovered.” The report exposed private gold
mining enterprises in Beijing Pinggu. Reporters found that illegal
miners secretly used chemicals to repeatedly wash and soak mountains to
absorb gold through activated carbon.
An article titled “Properties and Safe Disposal Methods of Yunan Cyanide Waste” was published in the industry journal Yunnan Metallurgical
in June 2015. The article stated that nearly 10 tons of cyanide
tailings were left by private and illegal miners in a county in east
Yunnan Province without any protective measures. The waste was scattered
across excavation sites in the woods, some of them located in local
government’s secondary water protection areas. These waste piles
contained toxic materials and posed a big threat to nature as well as
people.
Cyanide Black Market
The jewelry electroplating industry
also uses cyanide. Small workshops that are not licensed to purchase
cyanide get it from the black market. In many cases, heavily
contaminated wastewater is directly released into the environment.
Yiwu City in Zhejiang Province has
many jewelry electroplating businesses and a serious cyanide pollution
problem. In 2013, a safety supervisor in Chi’an Township of Yiwu City
noticed a heavily polluted small river in town. He also discovered a
large black resale market for cyanide.
Although the rate of cyanide degradation is fairly fast, continuous release of large amounts of cyanide does cause damage.
Light Punishment
Punishment for illegal discharge of cyanide is not nearly as severe in China as it is in the U.K. and the U.S.
For example, on the website of
China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection one can access the
“Environmental Impact Report Approval for Heilongjiang Baoshan Mining
Ltd. Gold Resources Development Project.” Right in the beginning it
states: “The environmental impact assessment filed for the project was
not approved by the ministry. Unauthorized construction was begun in
violation of relevant provisions in the Environmental Impact Assessment
Law. The illegal acts have been investigated and punished. The company
must learn lessons, improve awareness of the laws and prevent violations
from happening again.”
It seems, the punishment was nothing more than a light slap on the wrist.
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