A research team comprising chemists, engineers, and physicists from Flinders University in Australia has developed a new method for extracting gold from ore and e-waste using safer chemicals. According to TechXplore, this technique replaces the deadly cyanide used for leaching gold from the ore with trichloroisocyanuric acid (TCCA) — a cheap and safer compound often used for treating water and disinfection. They then created a new sulfur polymer that would only bind with the gold dissolved in the TCCA. The polymer is then heated or chemically broken down, causing it to release gold with a purity of more than 99%.
Aside from being safer to both humans and the environment, the sulfur polymer is highly recyclable, allowing it to be reused in future processes. This means that you don’t have to continually purchase new stocks of the sulfur polymer, thereby reducing both cost and resource consumption. This process also offers a safer alternative to mercury, which is often used in artisanal and small-scale gold mining and remains the largest source of mercury pollution.
