FOUNDATION-STONE OF NATURE

Cyanide has been used in industry for over a century. Although cyanide is commonly thought of as a deadly substance, it is nonetheless a widely used chemical essential to the modern world. Public concern about cyanide is valid and understandable. Much of the media attention and reaction from the public has arisen from the perception of a lack of scientific knowledge about cyanide and/or erroneous reports of impacts on human health and the environment. Fear frequently dictates our feelings in the absence of knowledge. Fear is often more marketable than knowledge. Fear is routinely employed as a tool against unpopular ideas or entities. Science and common sense are needed to counter the effects of fear. Science provides facts, while common sense promotes familiarity.

The reality is that products generated from cyanide are in ever-increasing demand around the world. The benefits of cyanide are many and its products are used safely each day by hundreds of millions of people. The reality is that no substitutes are available for cyanide. The reality is that the elimination of cyanide results in a much less desirable and safer life style. The reality is that people in developed and emerging countries will not condone lowering their standard of living. The reality is that we must live with cyanide and strive to educate ourselves about it.

Cyanide Sources and Uses

Cyanide was first used commercially in New Zealand over a century ago in the extraction and recovery of gold and silver. Although chemical replacements for cyanide have been investigated for decades, it remains the lixiviant of choice in the base and precious metals industry worldwide. The superiority of cyanide to other chemicals is due to a combination of availability, effectiveness, cost, and an ability to use it with acceptable risk to people and the environment.

About 80 percent of the world's cyanide production is used annually in the manufacture of organic compounds such as nylon, plastics and pharmaceuticals. A little less than 20 percent of the cyanide is used in the mining industry Elimination of gold and silver mining would not eliminate the need for or use of cyanide.

Cyanide originates from both manmade and natural sources. Ironically, cyanide has been postulated by many scientists as the first organic compound on earth, from which the chemical building blocks of life evolved. Cyanide is formed, excreted and degraded naturally by hundreds of animals, plants, insects, fungi and bacteria. The levels of cyanide produced upon digestion of certain plants can cause death in some animals and exceed limits for hazardous wastes. Some of the plants include apricots, bean sprouts, cashews, cherries, corn, lentils, potatoes and soybeans.

We come in daily contact with cyanide and its derivatives through foods and products. According to the 1981 USEPA cyanide exposure and risk assessment document and the 1995 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services cyanide toxicological profile, over 90 percent of the cyanide released to the atmosphere in the U.S. originates from automobile exhaust. Over two-thirds of the cyanide entering surface waters, is discharged from municipal sewage treatment plants. As an anti-caking agent in road salt, as much or more cyanide can be released into the environment during a single winter in a major northeastern city as is released annually from all U.S. mining operations.

The Rumors on harmfulness of Cyanide are over-colored

Cyanide is generally considered a short-term or acute toxicant. Cyanide is neither carcinogenic, mutagenic, tetratogenic, nor bio-accumulative. Cyanide is readily metabolized to thiocyanate. There are many chemicals more toxic than cyanide. The relative toxicity of cyanide can be illustrated by comparing it to that of chlorine, the main ingredient in common house hold bleach. Chlorine is more widely used than cyanide and in larger quantities. Chlorine and its derivatives are equally or more toxic than cyanide to people and aquatic life, and it remains in the soil for quite a long period of time without decay. It is noteworthy to mention that for a long time the chlorine was as a disinfectant for public water supplies and sodium hypochlorite was used for detoxification of Cyanide in tailings of min9ong industry in the Former Soviet Union (!!!).

The risk of accidental death due to cyanide exposure worldwide is quite rare and many thousands of times less than the risk of either dying in a vehicle accident or from simply falling down. Nearly all of the accidental and intentional fatalities resulting from cyanide exposure have occurred in and around the home and not in the workplace. Based upon information from both Canadian and U.S. federal health and safety agencies, there have been only three accidental deaths this century in the North American mining industry possibly arising from cyanide exposure. There was either no or conflicting medical opinions and data regarding these fatalities, and no direct confirmation that cyanide was the cause of death of any of the three individuals. Cyanide was used in the area in which each of the fatalities occurred, and was therefore speculated as the cause.

The manufacture, transport, storage, use and disposal of cyanide are strictly regulated in the most countries and can be managed safely. Despite of this environmental impacts resulting from mining operations are often attributed to cyanide, whether it's involved or not. This situation arises from the perception that mining and cyanide are synonymous or the desire to portray mining in a negative light. Such situations have arisen in all countries. Cyanide is not associated with long-term environmental impacts at mining sites as it is easily decayed into harmless components in short period of time. The attention of ecologist should be focused instead on such long-term environmental issues as generation of acidic mine drainage, geo-technical stability and bonding.

If we take look at most familiar historic accidents associated with cyanide, we would appreciate that common understanding of harmfulness of cyanide is really over-colored.

One such situation was the failure of the tailings dam at the Los Frailes Mine in southern Spain in April 1998. One U.S.-based environmental group stated in 1998 "while news reports of the associated massive fish kill did not mention cyanide or related compounds in the wastes, their presence seems likely given the nature of the metals extracted at this site." Cyanide was not being used at this zinc recovery operation. This type of speculation is completely unjustified and creates unwarranted fear about cyanide. Such statements require verification of the facts, as well as the reliability of their sources.

A similar situation involving a dam failure occurred at the Omai Gold Mine in Guyana in 1995, releasing about 3.2 million cubic meters of mine tailings to a local river. The tailings did contain total cyanide at levels of 20-30 mg/I. Technical review team, including members of the World Health Organization (WHO), was assembled on behalf of the government. The principle concern with respect to cyanide was the protection of aquatic life in and people along the Essequibo River. The WHO team reported no fish kills in this river and no cases of cyanide poisoning. The concentration of cyanide did not exceed the drinking water standard in the river. The initial release of tailings containing solids and cyanide directly into the smaller Omai River did produce immediate impacts on aquatic life, causing the death of about 350 fish. Within a week following the release, the total cyanide concentration in the Omai River was near detection. A month later, fish were seen in the Omai River near the point of release of the tailings. The longer term impacts to the Omai River were the result of deposited tailings, which were subsequently removed. There was no evidence of any impact on aquatic life in the Essequibo River. At no time did cyanide reach levels in this river that were a serious threat to human life. The exposure to cyanide was transient and no persistent toxic effects were noted in aquatic life, people, or livestock.

We managed to do this in our way

The waste of industrial enterprises containing cyanide is usually disposed into specially designed tailings dams. The concentration of Cyanide in such dams as prescribed by the International Cyanide Mnagement Code, shall not exeed 50 mg/l. International and local scientists confirm that compliance with this norms provides for safe operations of all industrial enterprises. Mr. Roudolf Gevorkyan, Professor of Yerevan State University, and head of Mineralogy and Geochemistry Department of the same university informed us that - " Chlorine is much more dangerous for the environment than cyanide, because its migration cumulative properties are much bigger than those for cyanide. Instead of using detoxificators containing chlorine we shall start investigating other opportunities. There a lot of scientific results in that sphere. All we need is to identify those which may be effectively used for detoxification of cyanide".

Ararat Gold Recovery Company, LLC (AGRC) is the only mining company in Armenia using cyanide in gold extraction technology. For detoxification of tailings AGRC uses huge quantities of hypochlorite which is accumulated in surrounding soils, and damaging environment. We wonder how it came that a company owner of which runs also a number of huge mines worldwide is not aware of the information stated in this publication. We also wonder how it comes that RA Ministry of Nature Protection is not forcing AGRC to guarantee that content of cyanide in tailings is not more than 50 mg/l, and then to request them to dispose such tailings into tailing dam without any further detoxification with hypochlorite. This is the only way to provide for environment friendly operation of the company.