In Brazil, the use of mercury in mining, despite being highly controlled, is very high. About 50 tons per year are used illegally.
Most gold mining activity is concentrated in the biologically rich Amazon region home to over half the world’s species of plants and animals. Miners use mercury to separate gold from the other minerals found in sediment of riverbeds and floodplains. In the process, some mercury is left behind in the environment. And after the mercury-gold bond is formed, the mercury is burned off, which releases more mercury vapor into the air.
According to a recent article in environmental science news site Mongabay.com, small-scale mining is particularly inefficient at mercury recovery, releasing some roughly 2.91 pounds of mercury into water systems for every 2.2 pounds of gold they produce.
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