Mining of gold

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences is funding research at the University of Nevada at Reno on the chemical environmental problems associated with mining of gold and silver in the desert environment of the western United States. Cyanide will be the focus of an environmental chemistry project which is intended to provide essential site and chemical characterization information to concurrent biomedical projects. This research will provide information on releases of cyanide to the environment from precious metal mining and help to determine the threat to human health (i.e., potential for human exposures to cyanide) from toxic mining waste. 

The Former School of Mining and Forestry at Schemnitz, or Selmeezbanya. Schemnitz, or Stiavnica Banska, Czechoslovakia, where Muller von Reichenstein, the discoverer of tellurium, was educated. When Austria-Hungary was divided in 1918, the collections, the library, the archives, and most of the portable equipment at the former Schemnitz School of Mines were taken to the University of Sopron in Hungary. Transylvania, with its historic mines of gold and tellurium, became part of Roumania. 

Mercury Electrical switches, pharmaceutical preservatives, mining of gold and silver... 

Mercury has been used in gold and silver mining since Roman times. It was estimated that in the period between 1550 and 1930, over 260000 tons of mercury were released into the biosphere due to this activity (de Lacerda 1997). Today, a great deal of mercury used in developing countries is spent in small-scale, artisanal mining of gold and silver. There are some estimates... 

In Russia mining of gold began in 1600 but it was not until the 19th century that the large-scale extraction of this metal started. 

Thermal fragmentation (milling) of rocks for the mining of gold and other valuable metals support of the production of ore concentrates. 

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