"The environment is damaged, the people's health threatened because of mercury, the nation is not getting the tax, the price of gold ruined. This is our concern."
Not only do sites like Lore Lindu contribute to large-scale deforestation, they also excrete heavy amounts of mercury.
Gold here is not coming from large, striking nuggets, but runs in faint, vein-like lines inside whitish-grey rock.
"Fifty to 60 kilograms of rock is needed to produce around one gram of gold," Budi, a miner at nearby Poboya in Palu said.
To break this rock down, it is trucked to large rotating steel drums called tromols.
Up to 2000 grams of mercury can be needed to produce about two grams of gold, leading to tens of thousands of kilograms of emissions a year at individual sites.
Once mercury ends up in the food chain from run-off, the UN says health consequenc
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