A quarter of the world’s mined gold comes from artisanal mines, basic holes in the ground where the miners – often children – climb down into the earth and hack at rock. Some use their bare hands to mix mercury with the ore to separate the gold; 80 per cent of all human mercury poisoning is caused by artisanal gold mining.
Globally, it is estimated that there are between 10m and 15m artisanal and small-scale gold miners, including 4.5m women and 600,000 children. In the Mongbwalu region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), 80 per cent of young men are estimated to work in artisanal mining, according to a World Bank-backed initiative.
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