Suparjiono, one of the owners of said dredging houses, said that in a month he uses five pounds of mercury for 20 processes of gold ore separation. That means that the amount of mercury waste generated amounts to 200 liters per process. The grayish waste is directly discharged into his backyard.
Home-based gold mining began in 2008, a year after gold mining company Indo Multi Niaga bagged the exploration contract of a gold concession of more than 11,600 hectares in the forest of Mount Tumpang Pitu. Nearly seven thousand miners--comprising of local residents and people who came from outside the region--came in a gold rush to look for the precious metal in the jungles.
Based on the research conducted by Susintowati, a lecturer for the August 17 1945 University, mercury waste had polluted the Lampon River in Pesanggaran district. The estuary, which borders on the Indian Ocean, the mercury level reaches 1.17 ppm. This is very alarming given the fact that the Minister of Environment's Decree No.51/2004 stipulates that the safe limit of mercury waste in rivers is only 0.07 mg/liter.
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