Cyanide is used in the production of organic chemicals such as nitrile, nylon, and
acrylic plastics. Other industrial applications of cyanide include electroplating, metal
processing, steel hardening, photographic applications, and synthetic rubber production. Gold mining operations use dilute solutions of sodium cyanide (100 – 500 ppm).
Sodium cyanide is highly soluble in water and under mildly oxidizing conditions
dissolves the gold contained in the ore. Mining operations use a variety of