Scientists in Brazil have expressed concern that new regulations in the country's Amazonas state continue to permit the use of mercury in gold mining, and have put forward what they say are more environmentally-friendly alternatives.
Mercury is used mainly in small-scale 'artisanal' mining, using amalgamation processes that extract gold from other minerals by binding it to the mercury, and then burning off the mercury.
http://www.scidev.net/en/health/news/use-of-mercury-in-gold-mining-stirs-controversy-in-brazil.html
No comments:
Post a Comment