“Artisanal gold mining is one of the largest pollution issues in the world,” said Bret Ericson, senior project director at the Blacksmith Institute. “Ore that contains gold is mixed by hand with quicksilver mercury. It forms an amalgam with the gold, and the gold is liberated by burning off the mercury.”
Ericson said that worldwide, it’s estimated that this process releases 1,000 tons of mercury into the environment annually — a number second only to the mercury emissions from coal plants.
With any luck, the recently implemented Minamata Convention on Mercury treaty, which aims to “protect human health and the environment from the adverse effects of mercury” will help. Indonesia signed on this past October.
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