Gold mining destroys the Peruvian jungle with mercury

Small-scale mining is devastating the rain forest. Mining crews are expected to hit streams of gold, but instead they hunt for small gold flakes scattered throughout the rain forest. They dredge the sediment from the river and clean the trees of the earth, and then use mercury to extract the precious metals from the earth. This method leaves the landscape depleted of nutrients, devoid of most vegetation, and has a disastrous effect on the toxic mercury of any remaining animal or plant.
read more... https://pkhype.com/gold-mining-destroys-the-peruvian-jungle-with-mercury/

The World Gold Miner Tokenizes Assets, Opens Up Trading On Coinsbit And Simex Exchanges

Along with these problems, ASGM sector also poses serious ecological threats, widespread use of toxic chemicals in production processes including the use of cyanide and mercury which damages the environment, and also becomes the root cause of serious water and air pollution. Also the ASGM sector is solely responsible for around 40 per cent of the world’s total human-made mercury emissions.
read more... https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/348254

Gold Mining Destroys The Peruvian Rainforest With Mercury

Small-scale mining is devastating the rainforest. The mining crews don’t expect to hit streams of gold, but instead, they scavenge for tiny gold flakes scattered throughout the entire rainforest. They dredge the river sediment and clear out land of trees, and then they use mercury to extract precious metals out of the dirt. This method leaves the landscape sucked from nutrients, devoid of most vegetation, and with the toxic mercury having a disastrous effect on any remaining animal or plant life. “There’s enough gold in the landscape to make a great deal of money in a struggling economy. You just have to destroy an immense amount of land to get it,” Fernandez remarked.
read more... https://www.intelligentliving.co/gold-mining-peruvian-rainforest-mercury/

The Women Who Hunt for Gold at the Top of the World

To remove gold from the rocks the men and women use mercury, a toxin that they wash away with water from a nearby glacier. The water flows down the mountain into rivers.

“The water used in mining is just dumped and all the communities downstream…receive polluted water” to support their farms, said Federico Chavarry. He is a lawyer and has worked on cases involving environmental crimes.

read more... https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/the-women-who-hunt-for-gold-at-the-top-of-the-world/5318377.html

Qualified success: What’s next for Peru’s Operation Mercury?

But when Peru launched Operation Mercury in February 2019, the tangible effects were immediate and considerable. According to the NGO Amazon Conservation’s Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP), the military- and police-led Operation Mercury drove down deforestation by 92% in the area bounded by the Malinowski River, the edge of Tambopata National Reserve and the Interoceanic Highway.
read more... https://news.mongabay.com/2020/03/qualified-success-whats-next-for-perus-operation-mercury/

How one country is grappling with mercury emissions from artisanal gold shops

What goes unseen are the toxic emissions from the rudimentary refining taking place within the many gold shops. Shop workers use mercury to separate the gold from other minerals and then burn off the mercury to yield pure gold. Depending on how open the shops are or how equipment is vented, “when they heat the gold up, the pollution travels down the street,” says Adam Kiefer, a chemistry professor at Mercer University.
read more... https://cen.acs.org/environment/pollution/one-country-grappling-mercury-emissions/98/i10

Minerals commission phasing out mercury use

The Minerals Commission says it has initiated interventions to control and minimize the use and exposure to mercury in the Small Scale Mining (SSM) industry.

The commission said it had collaborated with the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT) in Tarkwa to develop the “SikaBukyia” model as an alternative method for extraction of gold instead of mercury.
read more... https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/business/Minerals-commission-phasing-out-mercury-use-893920

MERCURY: A SILENT KILLER IN ZIMBABWE

At the river, the skilful washing process reduces the several sacks into just a few handfuls of fine sand. It is at this stage that the magic of mercury is summoned! When mercury – the only chemical cheaply available and affordable to the miners – is added to this slurry, it extracts all the little gold articles there could be in the sand and sinks to the bottom of the pan. This amalgam is separated, excess mercury and water thrown away, and the matter is taken for smelting in order for the mercury to evaporate, leaving the minuscule gold. The fumes from this smelting process are highly toxic.
read more... https://www.fairplanet.org/story/mercury-a-silent-killer-in-zimbabwe/

Illegal Guianas gold miners use lots of mercury – WWF

A major problem in gold mining in the Guianas is that migrant miners frequently use and release mercury for the amalgamation of gold particles endangering the health of persons, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) says as it welcomed the signing of a pact between Brazil and France recently
read more... https://www.stabroeknews.com/2009/01/15/news/guyana/illegal-guianas-gold-miners-use-lots-of-mercury-%e2%80%93-wwf/

Conservationists cautiously optimistic after Bolivian government changes hands

Mercury is commonly used to separate gold ore from the surrounding sediment. The World Health Organization considers mercury one of the top ten chemicals that poses a major public health concern, and studies have detected toxic blood levels in communities downstream of mining sites elsewhere in South America.
read more... https://news.mongabay.com/2020/03/conservationists-cautiously-optimistic-after-bolivian-government-changes-hands/

Ghana will soon import water due to 'galamsey'

"I'm getting disappointed. The 'galamsey' fight is something we have to win whether you are NPP or NDC. Ghanaians must wake up and citizens must be educated and it seems we are losing it. Where it's going very soon we will be importing water into the country."

In the Western Region, the main water bodies that have been polluted include the River Pra, Daboase, and River Ankobra.
read more... https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Ghana-will-soon-import-water-due-to-galamsey-Dr-Oduro-Osae-887533

Scramble for gold threatens cocoa farming in Osun community

While small-scale gold mining is a vital source of income, the use of toxic mercury to separate the gold from the ore is a major source of fear for the people.

According to experts, small-scale gold miners use mercury to separate gold from other materials, and the mercury finds its way into the environment and poses significant health risks for processors as well as those living and farming near mining sites.

read more... https://thenationonlineng.net/scramble-for-gold-threatens-cocoa-farming-in-osun-community/

Locating female ‘Voices’ in the Minamata Convention on Mercury in Sub-Saharan Africa: The case of Ghana

Countries that have ratified the Minamata Convention on Mercury, a United Nations-backed international treaty designed to protect human health and the environment from releases of mercury and mercuric compounds, are required to produce a National Action Plan (NAP). Each must state, very clearly, how the mercury being used at artisanal and small-scale gold mines will be phased out.
read more... https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1462901119314236

Sleeping Beauty: How suspect gold reached top brands

To extract the metal, some use toxins including mercury which they sluice into waters such as Lake Titicaca, where studies have documented high levels of heavy metals in fish. On satellite maps, pools near mining areas show up sulphurous yellow and neon green.
read more... https://brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/marketing/sleeping-beauty-how-suspect-gold-reached-top-brands/74515545

Meet the women who scavenge for gold at the top of the world

To extract gold from the rocks the men and women use mercury, a toxin which they rinse with melted ice from the glacier. The water flows down the mountain into pools, puddles and rivers.
read more... https://nypost.com/2020/03/06/meet-the-women-who-scavenge-for-gold-at-the-top-of-the-world/

Scramble for gold threatens cocoa farming in Osun community

While small-scale gold mining is a vital source of income, the use of toxic mercury to separate the gold from the ore is a major source of fear for the people.

According to experts, small-scale gold miners use mercury to separate gold from other materials, and the mercury finds its way into the environment and poses significant health risks for processors as well as those living and farming near mining sites.

read more... https://thenationonlineng.net/scramble-for-gold-threatens-cocoa-farming-in-osun-community/

Where does the mercury poisoning the Amazon come from?

The new report "The Amazon Biome in the Face of Mercury Contamination: An overview of mercury trade, science and policy in the Amazonian countries", connects these dramatic consequences at the local level with the dynamics of mercury in global trade. Prepared by WWF and the Gaia Amazonas Foundation, with the support of the UN Environment Programme, this publication reveals the alarming reality of mercury contamination in the Amazon and analyzes the route that this heavy metal follows to reach its final use for illegal and informal gold mining in the region. The report compiles and systematizes existing information, analyzes normative and policy instruments, and reviews the international mercury trade databases.
read more... https://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/?360511/Where-does-the-mercury-poisoning-the-Amazon-come-from-New-report-reveals-commercial-flows-of-mercury-to-the-region

Miners association holds symposium on reducing mercury use

The Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA) on Friday held a symposium to focus on alternative technologies and techniques for better recovery and the reduction in the use of mercury in Guyana.
read more... https://www.stabroeknews.com/2020/03/02/news/guyana/miners-association-holds-symposium-on-reducing-mercury-use/

"Galamsey" In Ghana - The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

"Galamsey" local parlance used to describe small scale illegal mining in Ghana has been a national headache for Ghana since the 1970s and the reasons are not farfetched. The rampaging effects of galamsey on our environment notably our lands, water bodies and forests, the health, safety and security issues of galamsey operatives themselves as well as the upsurge in social vices in galamsey communities underscore the national attention galamsey continues to court year after year.
read more... https://www.modernghana.com/news/987196/galamsey-in-ghana-the-good-the-bad-and-the.html

Journey of Gold: Mining and mercury- VIDEO

Gold is one of the world’s most valuable metals, used in everything from electronics to dentistry. But do you know where yours comes from? 20% of gold comes from artisanal and small-scale miners, who often work illegally using toxic chemicals, such as mercury. The Minamata Convention is working to promote mercury-free mining that helps workers and the planet.
read more... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53XmFJQUIiQ&list=PLZ4sOGXTWw8HQLpre5BtlJiy44Cr56hky&index=19&t=0s&app=desktop

Bolsonaro's Plan to Legalize Crimes Against Indigenous Peoples

Many Indigenous lands in the Amazon are suffering drastically from gold mining and its associated deforestation, according to Instituto Socioambiental (ISA), a non-profit organization. The Yanomami Indigenous people, for example, have reported that encroachment by thousands of wildcat miners in their territory has been associated with increased mercury poisoning, which has devasting consequences for health that can lead to lifelong disability and in extreme cases death.. Instituto FioCruz, a public research center of the Health Ministry, analyzed hair samples from women and children in two Yanomami communities and found that the majority had mercury concentrations above the limit established by the World Health Organization (WHO).
read more... https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/03/01/bolsonaros-plan-legalize-crimes-against-indigenous-peoples#