Gold mining is the removal of gold from the ground. There are several methods used to extract gold from the ground. These include panning, sluicing, dredging, rocker box, hard rock mining, by product gold mining, and cyanide process. Cyanide heap leaching is the cheapest way to extract gold and it is most commonly used around the world for this reason alone. The contamination of the surrounding environment is very hard to control, the leaching is a time consuming process which can take months. The process leaves behind leaking toxic materials and mounds of washed rock. Also accidents involving cyanide around the world have made the practice of heap leaching even more toxic and dangerous.
Mercury is another substance that is released freely into the environment as a result of dirty gold mining. Mercury has been used extensively for gold mining from as early as the sixteenth century. This accounts for at 30 to 40% of man made mercury pollution. The mercury can often enter through river basins, spreading the mercury toxins across national borders and into larger bodies of water. Mercury vapor also as serious health consequences for animal as well as humans
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