ELECTROPHORETIC ANALYSIS OF CYANIDE DEPLETION BY PSEUDOMONAS ALCALIGENES

Bacterial-facilitated depletion of cyanide is under development for re mediation of heap leach operations in the gold mining industry, Capill ary electrophoresis was found to be a powerful tool for quantifying cy anide depletion. Changes in cyanide concentration in aqueous suspensio ns of Pseudomonas alcaligenes bacteria and cyanide at eleveated pH wer e easily monitored by capillary electrophoresis. The resulting data ca n be used to study rates of cyanide depletion by this strain of bacter ia. Concentrations of these bacteria at 10(5) cells/ml were found to r educe cyanide from 100 ppm to less than 8 ppm in four days. In additio n, other ions of interest in cyanide metabolism, such as formate, can be simultaneously analyzed. Direct UV detection of cyanide at 192 nm f urther simplifies the analytical method for these ions.