Cyanide - The Facts
Cyanide is probably one of the most universally recognized poisons. Cyanide contains a carbon atom connected to a nitrogen atom, hence the chemical formula CN. However, the term cyanide is used to refer to a wide array of chemicals containing cyanide. Cyanides can be manufactured (from ammonia and natural gas, or as a by-product of acrylic fibres and plastics production) but they also occur in nature.
Due to its toxic nature, cyanide has been used as a fumigant and poison since early time, however, its most familiar use in the Yukon is in the mining industry. Over 90% of the gold mined in Canada is extracted using a cyanidation process. Cyanide forms a very stable complex with several metals and has been used since 1887 to extract gold, silver, copper, zinc and molybdenum from ores.
Waste cyanide in tailings ponds and abandoned heap leach pads can be dealt with in several ways: natural degradation or attenuation, chemical degradation, hydrogen peroxide process, alkaline chlorination, sulphur dioxide-air oxidation, or microbial processes.
Long term adverse effects associated with mining sites are related primarily to metals rather than cyanide. Cyanide can naturally degrade rapidly in the environment by volatilizing to hydrogen cyanide gas (HCN). This gas is dangerous in a closed system but much less so when gradually released in an out-of-doors environment.
The toxicity of cyanide is very dependent on its form. Mine effluents, tailings and leach pond water can contain cyanide in many forms ranging from the cyanide ion to strong metal cyanide complexes. The toxicity of cyanide compounds depends on the compound's ability to release the cyanide.
Each mine in the Yukon must abide by a Water Licence issued by the Yukon Territory Water Board. The licence ha standards of cyanide concentration that must be met in the effluent before it is discharged to the receiving environment.
Datasets available for download
Additional Info
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| Last Updated | October 20, 2025, 02:19 (UTC) |
| Created | October 20, 2025, 02:19 (UTC) |
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Domain / Topic
Domain or topic of the dataset being cataloged.
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Title
Title for the Dataset.
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Cyanide - The Facts |
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Description
A description of the dataset.
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Cyanide is probably one of the most universally recognized poisons. Cyanide contains a carbon atom connected to a nitrogen atom, hence the chemical formula CN. However, the term cyanide is used to refer to a wide array of chemicals containing cyanide. Cyanides can be manufactured (from ammonia and natural gas, or as a by-product of acrylic fibres and plastics production) but they also occur in nature. Due to its toxic nature, cyanide has been used as a fumigant and poison since early time, however, its most familiar use in the Yukon is in the mining industry. Over 90% of the gold mined in Canada is extracted using a cyanidation process. Cyanide forms a very stable complex with several metals and has been used since 1887 to extract gold, silver, copper, zinc and molybdenum from ores. Waste cyanide in tailings ponds and abandoned heap leach pads can be dealt with in several ways: natural degradation or attenuation, chemical degradation, hydrogen peroxide process, alkaline chlorination, sulphur dioxide-air oxidation, or microbial processes. Long term adverse effects associated with mining sites are related primarily to metals rather than cyanide. Cyanide can naturally degrade rapidly in the environment by volatilizing to hydrogen cyanide gas (HCN). This gas is dangerous in a closed system but much less so when gradually released in an out-of-doors environment. The toxicity of cyanide is very dependent on its form. Mine effluents, tailings and leach pond water can contain cyanide in many forms ranging from the cyanide ion to strong metal cyanide complexes. The toxicity of cyanide compounds depends on the compound's ability to release the cyanide. Each mine in the Yukon must abide by a Water Licence issued by the Yukon Territory Water Board. The licence ha standards of cyanide concentration that must be met in the effluent before it is discharged to the receiving environment. |
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Tags / Keywords
Keywords/tags categorizing the dataset.
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Format (CSV, XLS, TXT, PDF, etc)
File format of the dataset.
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Dataset Size
Dataset size in megabytes.
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Metadata Identifier
Metadata identifier – can be used as the unique identifier for catalogue entry
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Published Date
Published date of the dataset.
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2011-04-04 |
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Time Period Data Span (start date)
Start date of the data in the dataset.
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Time Period Data Span (end date)
End date of time data in the dataset.
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GeoSpatial Area Data Span
A spatial region or named place the dataset covers.
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Access category
Type of access granted for the dataset (open, closed, service, etc).
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License
License used to access the dataset.
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Open Government Licence - Yukon |
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Limits on use
Limits on use of data.
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Location
Location of the dataset.
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https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/e298fbb5-066a-4ac0-9101-210459ed7ec0 |
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Data Service
Data service for accessing a dataset.
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Owner
Owner of the dataset.
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Government of Yukon | Gouvernement du Yukon |
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Contact Point
Who to contact regarding access?
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Yukon Geological Survey |
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Contact Point Email
The email to contact regarding access?
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Publisher
Publisher of the dataset.
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Publisher Email
Email of the publisher.
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[email protected] |
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Author
Author of the dataset.
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Author Email
Email of the author.
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Accessed At
Date the data and metadata was accessed.
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Identifier
Unique identifier for the dataset.
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Language
Language(s) of the dataset
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Link to dataset description
A URL to an external document describing the dataset.
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Persistent Identifier
Data is identified by a persistent identifier.
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Globally Unique Identifier
Data is identified by a persistent and globally unique identifier.
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Contains data about individuals
Does the data hold data about individuals?
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Contains data about identifiable individuals
Does the data hold identifiable data about individual?
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Contains Indigenous Data
Does the data hold data about Indigenous communities?
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Portal Type
Platform type of the source portal.
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Version
Version of the datatset
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None |
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Source
Source of the dataset.
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None |
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Version notes
Version notes about the dataset.
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Is version of another dataset
Link to dataset that it is a version of.
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Other versions
Link to datasets that are versions of it.
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Provenance Text
Provenance Text of the data.
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Provenance URL
Provenance URL of the data.
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Temporal resolution
Describes how granular the date/time data in the dataset is.
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GeoSpatial resolution in meters
Describes how granular (in meters) geospatial data is in the dataset.
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GeoSpatial resolution (in regions)
Describes how granular (in regions) geospatial data is in the dataset.
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Indigenous Community Permission
Who holds the Indigenous Community Permission. Who to contact regarding access to a dataset that has data about Indigenous communities.
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Community Permission
Community permission (who gave permission).
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The Indigenous communities the dataset is about
Indigenous communities from which data is derived.
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Number of data rows
If tabular dataset, total number of rows.
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Number of data columns
If tabular dataset, total number of unique columns.
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Number of data cells
If tabular dataset, total number of cells with data.
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Number of data relations
If RDF dataset, total number of triples.
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Number of entities
If RDF dataset, total number of entities.
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Number of data properties
If RDF dataset, total number of unique properties used by the triples.
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Data quality
Describes the quality of the data in the dataset.
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Metric for data quality
A metric used to measure the quality of the data, such as missing values or invalid formats.
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