The crushed ore is irrigated with a dilute alkaline cyanide solution. The solution containing the dissolved precious metals in a pregnant solution continues percolating through the crushed ore until it reaches the liner at the bottom of the heap where it drains into a storage (pregnant solution) pond. After separating the precious metals from the pregnant solution, the dilute cyanide solution (now called "barren solution") is normally re-used in the heap-leach-process or occasionally sent to an industrial water treatment facility where the residual cyanide is treated and residual metals are removed. In very high rainfall areas, such as the tropics, in some cases there is surplus water that is then discharged to the environment, after treatment, posing possible water pollution if treatment is not properly carried out.
The production of one gold ring through this method, can generate 20 tons of waste material.
During the extraction phase, the gold ions form complex ions with the cyanide:
Recuperation of the gold is readily achieved with a redox-reaction:
The most common methods to remove the gold from solution are either using activated carbon to selectively absorb it, or the Merrill-Crowe process where zinc powder is added to cause a precipitation of gold and zinc.  The fine product can be either doré (gold-silver bars) or zinc-gold sludge that is then refined elsewhere.