Indonesia, home to one of the world’s largest gold industries,
produced 60 metric tons of gold in 2012. It is estimated that the
country produced an additional 65 to 100 metric tons illegally, using a
purifying technique that raises concerns among environmental and health
experts, writes.
As Joe Cochrane has written for the New York Times, illegal small scale gold mining and processing is conducted in people’s back yards
and is funded and protected by businessmen, as well as by corrupt
police, army, and local officials. What makes this particular method of
gold processing dangerous is the use of mercury to extract the gold. The
added mercury forms an amalgam, binding the gold in the ore. A final
step of burning evaporates the mercury and the result is a purified gold
product. While industrial gold mines are prohibited from applying this
technique, it facilitates quick cash for small-scale producers, the
numbers of which are rising; one reason is the affordable price of
mercury.
http://fairplanet.net/2014/01/mercury-in-indonesia/
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