There is little regard for human health. In artisanal gold mines like the one on Botok Mountain, mercury is used to separate small pieces of gold from rock. Informal gold mining is the “second worst form of mercury pollution after the burning of fossil fuels,” according to a 2009 Associated Press article. Mercury ravages the nervous system of people exposed to it, and pollutes waterways and fish.
Regulations of other safety hazards are also nonexistent. Though we were unable to travel to the mine, the mothers we interviewed shared with us the terrible conditions there. There are no bathrooms. Makeshift mines are dug one next to the other. They frequently collapse, trapping miners inside. Locals we interviewed said as many as 1,000 people have died in these accidents.
“Sometimes they can’t find the dead,” Mercy Corps field facilitator Yayu Erlyna said, “and they just continue mining.”
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