Sustainable Gold Production and Recycling

Dear Colleagues,

Since its inception in the late 1800s, cyanidation has been the dominant process for gold production worldwide. Due to its simplicity and high cost efficiency, it nearly completely replaced all former processes. The main disadvantage of cyanide is related to environmental issues, which may occur through improper storage and transport or failed tailings management and storage. From a technical aspect, industrial gold recovery becomes more difficult, since most high-grade and easy-to-process ore deposits are already depleted. Gold producers are forced to use increasingly complex and low-grade ores. With regard to these limitations of cyanide, alternative reagents and processes often show better technical characteristics, such as a higher extraction rate, a higher selectivity and lower hazardousness.

From an ecological perspective, the recycling of gold becomes especially important, as it allows for a reduction of more than 99% compared to primary production. While recycling jewellery is already a quite elaborated process, other waste materials show a high potential for optimization. The most important secondary resource stream after jewellery is electronic waste. The dominant pyrometallurgical state-of-the-art process is slow, requires large and expensive facilities, and generates a high amount of emissions. Smaller-scale operations often take place in the informal sector by using aqua regia or mercury to recover gold.

This Special Issue aims to provide an up-to-date view on current industrial gold production and recycling technologies in a worldwide context, considering innovative approaches for gold extraction and refining from the laboratory scale up to industrial applications. A special focus will be placed on the recycling of e-waste and other gold-containing waste streams, which shows important ecological but also economic advantages.

Prof. Dr. Bernd Friedrich
Dr. Alexander Birich
Guest Editors

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