13-07-2025
Gold prospector 'scared' by crumbling five-metre discovery in Aussie bush
Deep in the bush are the ruins of pits that once contained one of the 19th Century's most dangerous and commonly used chemicals, cyanide. The pits were used to extract gold from ore, and their locations can prove valuable for modern-day prospectors searching for long-lost nuggets. Others search for ruined huts, abandoned mines and even old maps.
Dusty, who quit her job to search for gold full-time, recently photographed several five-metre-wide pits outside the central Victorian town of Moliagul. 'I never knew it was there. I was just climbing up the hill and realised I was standing on top of the tank, it's wild to have this hidden history,' she told Yahoo News Australia, after reporting the find on her social media page.
Back in the day, the pits were drained directly into the bush, and this could contaminate fresh water, killing off fish, wildlife and even people. Death in humans can occur within minutes of cyanide poisoning, and within seconds, exposure can cause headache, loss of consciousness, nausea, and difficulty breathing.
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Historical pictures show men standing on top of the pits at great risk to their own safety.
'When I come across them in the bush, I stand roughly where they would have been working, and I think one slip and they would have been in the tank, and they would have been dead,' Dusty said.
'I just don't know how people could have walked along with their big wooden paddles and stirred the cyanide slurry and thought nothing of it. It scares me even now, and it always blows me away when I find them.'
Today, undisturbed pits pose little danger to walkers, according to Heritage Victoria, which manages several of the historic sites around the goldfields region.
Although there are alternatives, cyanide continues to be used for gold extraction around the world. Even though the methods have been modernised, and the risks of contamination are low, University of Western Sydney water expert, Associate Professor Ian Wright, is concerned about the practice.
'There are different forms of cyanide, and there are lots that have long-term impacts,' he told Yahoo News.
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Twenty-five years ago in Romania, a joint venture between the country's government and Australian company Esmeralda Exploration resulted in 100,000 cubic metres of water contaminated with cyanide leaking into the Somes River and then into the Danube. Foxes, otters and birds all died after eating contaminated fish, and the problem spread to neighbouring Serbia and Hungary.
Last year, elevated levels of cyanide were detected around Victoria Gold's Eagle gold mine in Canada's Yukon Territory following the discharge of millions of litres of water laced with the chemical. The leak resulted in the company being placed in receivership and its stock being delisted.
'In most mine operations, they do things well. But the tragedy for something like cyanide, even if leaks are super rare, is that the consequences can be absolutely terrible,' Wright said.
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