It has been noted in laboratory tests and gold operation that the efficiency of Caro’s acid in destroying cyanide is influenced by the metallic content, mineralogy composition, slurry viscosity, Caro’s acid viscosity and mixing efficiency between tailings or barren solution and Caro’s acid. In some circumstances is common practice to study the behavior of active oxygen to evaluate the efficiency of the cyanide destruction process. In this way, the active oxygen/CN- ratio is not influenced by the several factors such as ore throughput and cyanide concentration. For example at 0.80-0.90 ratios, approximately 75-85% of the active oxygen is employed to destroy cyanide and considering that peroxygens are subjected to decomposition by heavy metals ions, the efficiency of the destruction process is high.
Also, it is important to mention that hot application is efficient and a cold application can be evaluated in terms of active oxygen. In this case the efficiency is also influenced by the slurry and Caro’s acid viscosities. If they are similar, the efficiency is high. Other important consideration is the proportion between hydrogen peroxide and sulphuric acid. When are very similar, the efficiency of the destruction process is enhanced significantly.Other factor related to the efficiency of the destruction of cyanide is the equipment. If the equipment was designed considering potential problems such as power failure, or pumping problems, the Caro’s acid prepared must flow to the Detoxification plant in order to avoid any possible decomposition of the acid.