Sodium cyanide plays an important role in the mining solutions business due to its capacity to meet the growing demand from the gold and silver mining sectors. This is especially true for North and South America, Australia, South Africa and China, where sodium cyanide is used primarily as a reagent in the mining industry for the isolation of precious metals. In Europe and Japan, sodium cyanide is more commonly used as a chemical intermediate.
Current sodium cyanide prices demonstrate an upward trend considering that mining operations become more expensive, gold prices increase amid growing instability and various other macroeconomic factors intervene.
Thus, Memphis-headquartered The Chemours Company (Chemours), which is the largest sodium cyanide market player with 320,000 mty in capacity, announced a 15% global price increase on all sodium cyanide products effective of May 15, 2018, though some price variations are plausible subject to specific market cases and conditions.
Top five sodium cyanide manufacturers’ shares
Environmental and social factors influence Chemours’ activities as well. The importance of these factors has been growing, often resulting in conflict of interests. It is worthwhile to mention here that sodium cyanide releases a highly toxic hydrogen cyanide gas that interferes with the body’s ability to use oxygen. Exposure to sodium cyanide can cause fatal outcomes. Local residents living near sodium cyanide facilities view them as very hazardous and detrimental for their health.
Unsurprisingly, the plans to build or expand such facilities are often met with acrimonious reaction. So, when Chemours decided to build a sodium cyanide plant in Mexico, these plans were confronted. In 2016, Chemours first attempted to construct a sodium cyanide unit in Guanajuato (a capital city in eponymous state and municipality in central Mexico), but had to abandon the project because of the local opposition.
Another project, which was met with a lukewarm response, is a recent plan to build a sodium cyanide plant in the town of Dinamita (Gómez Palacio municipality, state of Durango). This step was severely opposed by local NGOs and farmers, which even led to clashes with police and arrests of activists.
Thus, it is evident that environmental and social concerns continue to play an ever-growing role in sodium cyanide business, and companies should consider them in their activities.
More information on the world’s sodium cyanide market can be found in the in-demand research report “Sodium Cyanide: 2018 World Market Outlook and Forecast up to 2027”.