1. Introduction
Cyanide is a strong toxic chemical frequently used in various industrial processes, including synthetic fibre production, extraction of gold and silver, coal processing and extractive metallurgy.
In the mining industry, cyanide is also widely used to recover gold residues after mercury amalgamation .
The use of cyanide in artisanal small scale gold mining (ASGM) is widespread in West-Africa, particularly in Burkina Faso .
The majority of current mine workers were initially farmers that started to be involved in the activity to complete their revenues during dry season and later as resilience to climate change.