Amateur miners, inspired by Bering Sea Gold, being tested for mercury

Miners today dredge with boat-mounted excavators; dive and suck up sediment from the sea floor (as seen on Bering Sea Gold, for example); and some even just dig up sediment on the edge of the water and use a sluice box to try and extract the gold. But, some amateurs may now be trying to heat the mercury-gold mixtures they are finding, then evaporating the liquid mercury to leave behind only gold, much as miners once did in days gone by. This, Hamade said, can be toxic to the miner. "If it's not in a well-ventilated area, they could be exposed to mercury fumes, and those could be toxic," he said. "When it's vapor, when it's fumes, you could inhale it, similar to any gas or dust that you may encounter." Such exposure could cause death, the World Health Organization indicates, or, for those who survive, can cause irreversible damage to the nervous, digestive and immune systems, as well as to the lungs or kidneys.
http://www.huliq.com/10473/amateur-miners-inspired-bering-sea-gold-being-tested-mercury