In artisanal gold mining, most miners use mercury to isolate and transport gold. By the Environmental Protection Agency’s estimation, this practice results in the second largest source of global mercury pollution.
When mercury is mixed with silt that contains small gold particles, it binds to the gold, forming an amalgam. When this amalgam is later heated, the mercury is vaporized—leaving behind the captured gold.
Mercury fumes and mine tailings pollute the environment near artisanal mining operations, which employ some 15 million men, women, and children. By the World Bank’s estimation, it is: “a poverty driven activity, typically practiced in the poorest and most remote rural areas of a country by a largely itinerant, poorly educated populace with little other employment alternatives.”
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