Government officials are working on an international agreement to protect human and environmental health from mercury released by human activity, to which New Zealand is likely to be a signatory.
Mercury is extremely poisonous and Puhipuhi is one of only three places in New Zealand which has it in its rocks and soil, Ms Kirk said.
There is documented evidence of health problems suffered by miners who worked at an old mercury mine in the Puhipuhi hills. In the past, locally quarried, mercury-laden gravel had to be removed from unsealed roads, and there were "dead" creeks and paddocks where the rock had leached or been dumped
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