When Midroc took over the lease of Lega Dembi in 1997, it introduced a cyanide-leaching system to extract gold. Prior to 1997, a state-owned mining company had used mercury, another toxic chemical, for gold processing. The community health study found that community members stored and used mercury, apparently for gold processing. While the compliance audit conducted by Addis Ababa University assessed mercury levels but did not report concerns about mercury pollution, an unpublished 2019 study by an independent academic researcher found extremely high levels of mercury in water and soil samples. For example, the mean mercury content in water was about 37 times above the WHO standard for drinking water.
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