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Non-toxic technology extracts more gold from ore

Posted in chemistry, engineering, space

Gold is one of the world’s most popular metals. Malleable, conductive and non-corrosive, it’s used in jewelry, electronics, and even space exploration. But traditional gold production typically involves a famous toxin, cyanide, which has been banned for industrial use in several countries.

The wait for a scalable non-toxic alternative may now be over as a research team from Aalto University in Finland has successfully replaced cyanide in a key part of gold extraction from ore. The results are published in Chemical Engineering.


Study shows new chloride-based process recovers 84% of gold compared to the 64% recovered with traditional methods.

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