A review on electrochemical dissolution and passivation of gold during cyanidation in presence of sulphides and oxides

In the majority of the previous polarization studies, anodic reaction was examined in absence of oxygen whereas cathodic reaction in absence of cyanide, separately, and the dissolution was considered as the intersection of both curves. However, some recent findings report that this does not represent the actual gold dissolution rate as in practice. Additionally, the direction of scanning in cathodic polarization tests, either OCP to cathodic potentials or cathodic potential to OCP, is also reported.