Syndicates dealing in chemicals such as mercury – used to extract gold from ore and sourced from China and other countries – supply thousands of unregistered small-scale and artisanal miners. These miners are commonly known as “makorokoza," a term that comes from Zimbabwe’s Shona language.
read more... https://risingnepaldaily.com/news/73241
After the amalgam is recovered, it is squeezed in a cloth to recover excess mercury, and then it is burned to volatilize the remaining mercury leaving an anthropogenic gold nugget.
read more... https://www.scirp.org/journal/paperinformation?paperid=148309
The Congolese people and government have grown frustrated with Chinese gold mining companies operating illegally in the east, degrading the environment and abusing African miners’ rights. The environmental impacts of large-scale Chinese mining operations are devastating, as they pollute their communities’ water sources with toxic chemicals such as cyanide and mercury
Mining is not the sole driver, but in countries like Ghana, Burkina Faso and Tanzania, small-scale and industrial mining has become a significant contributor to forest degradation and river contamination. Mercury pollution from artisanal gold mining alone affects river systems shared across national borders, complicating enforcement efforts.
The transition from mercury amalgamation to cyanidebased extraction in artisanal and small-scale gold mining has reshaped contaminant behavior in mining-impacted watersheds
read more... https://www.gjesm.net/article_732031_0afb26e7c4001b5eef27a75e8f9ed3d8.pdf
Ms Anam-Erime added that illegal mining exposes residents, especially pregnant women, to harmful chemicals such as mercury and cyanide, which could pose serious risks to unborn children. Illegal mining activities
read more... https://www.modernghana.com/news/1458221/birth-defects-rising-in-talensi-mining-communities.html
The persistence of mercury in artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) operations represents one of the most complex environmental finance challenges facing West African economies. Despite global awareness of mercury's devastating health and environmental impacts, economic realities continue to drive its widespread use across informal mining sectors.
read more... https://discoveryalert.com.au/liberia-mercury-reduction-sustainable-mining-2025/
Illegal gold mining in Peru operations rely heavily on mercury amalgamation for gold extraction, creating widespread environmental contamination that affects public health across multiple river basins. Mercury contamination spreads far beyond mining sites through river transport, bioaccumulation in fish populations, and atmospheric deposition from burning amalgams.
read more... https://discoveryalert.com.au/illegal-gold-mining-peru-crisis-shadow-economy-2025/
As a youth-led and youth-focused organisation, the NYBN is alarmed by a widening convergence of harmful practices: mercury-dependent mining methods, rapid land degradation, declining biodiversity, youth exposure to toxic work, and the growing insecurity that blocks help and reform.
read more... https://www.environewsnigeria.com/minamata-convention-cop6-mercury-and-artisanal-gold-mining-in-northwest-nigeria/
Mercury is widely used because it is cheap, accessible and effective at extracting gold from ore, but the amalgamation process produces toxic vapors that settle in households, exposing families particularly children and pregnant women to neurological damage, kidney problems and respiratory diseases.
It is at the ore processing stage that mercury, cyanide, and other harmful chemicals find their way into the rivers and the soil. Most illegal operations mess up the environment not because they extract irresponsibly, but because they process irresponsibly. Ore processing is therefore where policy reform Is most essentials.
read more... https://thebftonline.com/2025/12/11/rethinking-galamsey/
In many rural parts of Sub-Saharan Africa and South America, families live along rivers that shimmer with both gold dust and mercury. Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (locally called galamsey in Ghana) offers quick income, but leaves behind poisoned soil, contaminated fish, and invisible health risks that accumulate across generations.
read more... https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/impactevaluations/consensus-or-polarization-in-environmental-action--how-local-lea
Artisinal and small-scale gold mining has likely risen to about 30% of global supply, Terry Heymann, the council’s chief financial officer, said in an interview. In many gold-rich countries such as Ghana, rural populations are shifting from farming to small-scale gold mining. The unregulated extraction causes mercury pollution and provides organized crime with a new source of revenue, said Heymann
Across many parts of Africa, a network of Chinese companies is engaged in illegal gold mining that devastates local communities, destroys forests and poisons water sources.
read more... https://www.eurasiareview.com/09122025-illegal-gold-mining-devastates-the-drc/
The risks extend beyond sudden collapses. Academic and government research shows that artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) brings toxic legacies: mercury and other potentially toxic elements contaminate soils and waterways, children and women face occupational exposure, and biodiversity suffers as pits scar once-productive landscape.
Toxic chemicals like mercury and cyanide used in ASGM seep into the soil and nearby water bodies, contaminate rivers and groundwater, and make them unsafe for drinking, farming, and aquatic life.
read more... https://punchng.com/deadly-pits-sad-tales-of-workers-dying-in-illegal-mines/
“We have scientific evidence that mercury used in gold processing contaminates air, soil and water,” he said, adding that WHO data show mercury levels in artisanal gold mining areas can be up to 50 times higher than safe limits.
read more... https://citinewsroom.com/2025/12/galamsey-a-moral-and-spiritual-crisis-former-president-of-gpcc/
Yet beneath this optimism lies a threat the new law does not confront. Major rivers including the Pra, Ankobra, Offin, and Birim now carry heavy loads of silt, mercury, cyanide and other contaminants from illegal mining operations known locally as galamsey into coastal waters.
read more... https://www.newsghana.com.gh/new-fisheries-law-overlooks-critical-mining-pollution-threat-to-ghanas-coastline/
Perhaps worse than increased costs is the fear that what little medicinal plants remain may actually be poisoning those who use them due to the heavy metals used for processing gold seeping into the soil nearby. Areas with illegal mining have elevated levels of mercury, cyanide and arsenic in the environment.
read more... https://www.myjoyonline.com/global-gold-prices-have-made-ghana-richer-but-at-what-cost/
“The environmental impact of mining in Ghana is severe, marked by significant deforestation, large-scale water and land pollution from chemicals like mercury, and extensive land degradation,” he said.Adopt one national framework to tackle galamsey – Prof Fobil urges stakeholders
Legacy and active gold mining using elemental mercury (Hg0) as an amalgam have influenced mercury (Hg) concentrations in terrestrial and aquatic organisms.
read more... https://extension.unr.edu/publication.aspx?PubID=7231
In mining communities like Talensi, air contamination from the open burning of mercury has reached levels far above international safety thresholds.
read more... https://evrimagaci.org/gpt/ghana-faces-reckoning-as-illegal-gold-mining-surges-518427
A one-day Trainer of Trainers workshop aimed at enhancing the understanding of mercury exposure risks among health professionals in Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining (ASGM) communities has been held in Tarkwa.
