Another way in which mining damages the rainforest is on-site refining.
One way to collect and concentrate gold is by using mercury or cyanide
to amalgamate the mineral and separate it from other deposits. While
refiners can reclaim these materials by carefully melting the amalgamate
and separating it back out, often times they simply burn it away or
dump the excess into local waterways. Small-scale mining operations may
release nearly three pounds of mercury for every 2.2 pounds of gold
produced, according to Mongabay.com, and this can have devastating
effects on plant and animal life. Cyanide, a highly toxic chemical, is
often used to separate mined gold. Mongabay.com reveals that a mine
accident in Guyana in 1995 released more than a billion gallons of the
cyanide into the environment, contaminating drinking water and killing
aquatic and terrestrial life in the region.
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