In Tanzania’s small-scale mines – in the informal as well as the formal sector – we have seen with our own eyes how miners mix the mercury into the ore with their bare hands, create a gold-mercury amalgam, and then burn the amalgam over an open flame. Even children do this, unaware of the risk.
Some children in mining areas are exposed to mercury from the moment of their birth. One of them was 12-year-old Erevu, who processed gold with mercury at a mine in Tanzania’s Chunya district and said he suffered from dizziness and headaches every day.
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