Inco Technical Services and Degussa AG have entered into an agreement jointly to develop a new cyanide- destruction process. The companies say that the new process will not only meet the required limits for effluents from gold mining but will achieve these at significantly lower operating and capital costs.

Ineo already markets its '802/Air'cyanide-destruction process which has been installed at around 80 mine sites. The process can remove all base metals and reduce total cyanide levels to below 1 mg/litre in treated mine effluents.

Degussa is the leading producer and distributor of sodium cyanide for the mining industry. It also markets several cyanide-destruction processes based on hydrogen peroxide.