Professor Takanobu Inoue of Toyohashi Tech’s Department of Architecture
and Civil Engineering has been conducting field surveys of mercury
poisoning in Indonesia for over a decade.
“The main source of
this pollution today is small-scale gold mining,”says Inoue, who is an
expert on water environmental engineering. “Goldmining is easy to learn
and simple to operate, so for people living onthe poverty line, it
offers hope for the future.”
When there is no sophisticated
technology available, gold mining involves simply mixing mercury and
water with gold ore to form anamalgam. The mixture is then heated to
remove the mercury by evaporation, while the water containing mercury
residue is usually discarded directly into rivers.
http://www.azocleantech.com/news.aspx?newsID=18977
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