The predominance of gold cyanidation in the use of sodium cyanide (NaCN) is indisputable, especially in the regions of North and South America, China and Australia. In North America alone, the extraction of gold and other precious metals comprises over 90% of sodium cyanide application. With unsteady gold prices, rising mining costs and safety concerns, the demand for sodium cyanide within gold mining application might be negatively affected. However, gold cyanidation is an important process for mining firms, which definitely spurs the interest towards sodium cyanide. The major sodium cyanide manufacturers on the US market include Cyanco Company LLC and Chemours.
Cyanco was established when Oaktree Capital Management acquired Nevada Chemicals and bought Evonik’s sodium cyanide business in the US and Canada (Evonik/CyPlus GmbH still owns sodium cyanide plant in Wesseling, Germany). Cyanco Company LLC has two production facilities located in Winnemucca, Nevada and Alvin, Texas. Cyanco has just recently expanded its capacity in Winnemucca, Nevada and has been adding new capacities since 2008. Chemours is a DuPont’s spin-off (effective as of July 2015), in which sodium cyanide is a major product of one of its three segments, namely Chemical Solutions. In 2015 Chemours began the process of sodium cyanide capacity expansion. The company has a sodium cyanide manufacturing facility in Memphis, Tennessee. The realization of these expansion plans signifies that major players on the US sodium cyanide market view its prospects as positive.
More details on the sodium cyanide market can be found in insightful research report “Sodium Cyanide: 2016 World Market Outlook and Forecast up to 2020”.