Understanding the fundamentals — arsenic, cyanide, water, tailings — and suddenly the noise is a lot less convincing. While most arsenic stays locked in place; the small soluble fraction is captured and chemically turned back into a long-term, stable solid before entering the tailings facility. Cyanide: controlled, treated, below drinking-water limitsThe word "cyanide" tends to appear where the technical understanding ends. Before anything reaches the tailings facility, it runs through a dedicated destruction circuit, cutting cyanide to below 50ppm, the strict limit for discharge. What a tailings facility actually is (and is not)The phrase "tailings dam" still gets thrown around like it’s the Clyde Dam waiting to fail.

Source: Otago Daily Times February 16, 2026 15:34 UTC