**1. Introduction**

Cyanide is an extremely toxic substance that is produced naturally and artificially. Cyanide has been widely used in several industries applications such as textile, plastics, paints, photography, electroplating, agriculture, metal treatment and mining. The high binding affinity of cyanide for metals such as gold, zinc, copper and silver has enabled it to selectively leach these metals from ores.

Southern Africa is a region rich in minerals such as gold. Countries in the southern Africa boost their economies through vast investments in gold mining. Cyanide leaching has become the dominant gold extraction technology since the 1970s replacing previously used less efficient and more toxic mercury. These gold mines discharge effluent containing toxic cyanides into

© 2017 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2017 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

natural water bodies posing the greatest threat to the quality of water intended for human use. Therefore, it is imperative to develop effective strategies for the removal of cyanide from aqueous industrial wastewater streams.
