Silent suicide - Illegal artisanal gold miners risk the life of innocent Bougainvilleans!

Many gold deposits are too low in gold content nowadays to use efficiently the panning technique. Therefore, mercury amalgamation is used to extract gold from rocky ores after crushing them in mills. This method is often referred to as artisanal gold mining. 


It is estimated that the world production of artisanal gold is 225 tons. One million persons are employed of which 40% are women. Only 20% of the artisanal gold produced is sold through official channels. For example: In Latin America, over 1 million artisanal gold miners produce between 115 and 190 tons of gold, emitting over 200 tons of mercury annually. Between 2 and 8 miners produce 1 kg of gold annually. Mercury is an effective, simple and very inexpensive reagent to extract gold (1kg of mercury costs 1 g of gold). The Netherlands and Germany are the main suppliers of mercury. It is estimated that the environment is polluted with more than 1 kg of mercury for every kg of gold produced.
http://www.bougainville-copper.eu/mercury-threat.html