Original metadata (https://open.yukon.ca) (English, HTML)

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Publisher-reported update

2026-08-26

Cyanide is probably one of the most universally recognized poisons. Cyanide contains a carbon atom connected to a nitrogen atom, hence the chemical formula CN. However, the term cyanide is used to refer to a wide array of chemicals containing cyanide. Cyanides can be manufactured (from ammonia and natural gas, or as a by-product of acrylic fibres and plastics production) but they also occur in nature. Due to its toxic nature, cyanide has been used as a fumigant and poison since early time, however, its most familiar use in the Yukon is in the mining industry. Over 90% of the gold mined in Canada is extracted using a cyanidation process. Cyanide forms a very stable complex with several metals and has been used since 1887 to extract gold, silver, copper, zinc and molybdenum from ores. Waste cyanide in tailings ponds and abandoned heap leach pads can be dealt with in several ways: natural degradation or attenuation, chemical degradation, hydrogen peroxide process, alkaline chlorination, sulphur dioxide-air oxidation, or microbial processes. Long term adverse effects associated with mining sites are related primarily to metals rather than cyanide. Cyanide can naturally degrade…

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