Determination of small quantities of xanthate

A new spectrophotometric method for the determination of very small amounts of xanthate in solutions, particularly cyanide solutions from gold-extraction plants, is described. It is based on the formation and extraction of copper(II) xanthate. The coefficient of variation is 1.0% at the 40-ppm level and 3.4% at the 4-ppm level and the lower limit of determination is approximately 0.5 ppm. Copper(II) xanthate normally decomposes into copper(I) xanthate and dixanthogen, but in the proposed method the decomposition is delayed.