The Second Gold Rush That Changed Gold Mining Forever

In the late 1800s, gold mining was nearing its limits. Miners had exhausted rich surface deposits, and mercury amalgamation could no longer keep up with the fine gold locked inside sulfide ores and discarded tailings. But everything changed with the discovery of the cyanide leaching process—a scientific breakthrough that sparked a second gold rush across Australia. This innovation allowed miners to extract gold from low-grade ore and old waste heaps with remarkable efficiency, reshaping the economic landscape of mining towns and pushing recovery rates beyond anything previously possible. In this article, we explore how cyanide revolutionized gold extraction, why it outperformed mercury, and how it led to one of the most significant transformations in the history of gold mining.