Cyanide Wikipedia
Cyanide is mainly produced for the mining of gold and silver: It helps dissolve these metals and their ores. In the cyanide process, finely ground highgrade ore is mixed with the cyanide (at a ratio of about 1:500 parts NaCN to ore); lowgrade ores are stacked into heaps and sprayed with a cyanide solution (at a ratio of about 1:1000 parts NaCN to ore).