North Sulawesi to promote the use of cyanide in gold mining activities

North Sulawesi province is asking gold mining companies in the province to use cyanide instead of mercury in their processing activities in a bid to give a better protection to the environment, Kompas daily reported.

The vice governor of the province Freddy Sualang said in Manado last week that the use of cyanide in gold processing activities is not only safer to the environment but be also cheaper.

A growing gold mining activities carried out by the local people have caused a widespread mercury pollution in river waters. The provincial administration has failed to curb the use of the substance due to the lack of alternatives to replace it.

According to Freddy, unlike Mercury, the impact of the cyanide to the environment is minimal because the substance would vanish only within three days.

He said that the North Sulawesi authority would cooperate with the Philippines government to promote the use of the cyanide technology in the province. "The Philippine mineral and environmental office has agreed to share its expertise with North Sulawesi in the use of cyanide," he added. (*)