In the cyanide extraction process of silver from argentite ore, the oxidizing agent used is:
In the cyanide extraction process of silver from argentite ore , the oxidizing agent used is oxygen
. The process involves the formation of a soluble complex of silver ions
with cyanide ions
in the presence of oxygen.
The chemical reaction can be represented as follows:
In this reaction, oxygen acts as the oxidizing agent by providing the necessary oxygen atoms to oxidize the silver sulfide to silver ions
. The cyanide ions
then complex with the silver ions to form a soluble silver cyanide complex
.