Gold extraction - Wikipedia
The solubility of gold in a water and cyanide solution was discovered in 1783 by Carl Wilhelm Scheele, but it was not until the late 19th century, that an industrial process was developed.The expansion of gold mining in the Rand of South Africa began to slow down in the 1880s, as the new deposits being found tended to be pyritic ore.The gold could not be extracted from this compound with any ...