Gold panning leaves toxic mercury trail in Pakistan

“Our research indicates high mercury concentrations in soils close to mining operations and particularly alarming contamination levels in people living around the Hunza river,” Khan says.

Mercury dissolves gold out of the ore, and when heated boils away leaving gold behind. Gold extraction using mercury continues along the banks of the Hunza, Gilgit and Indus rivers in the remote Gilgit-Baltistan region.

“Mercury cannot be destroyed, knows no boundaries and easily contaminates air, soil and water,” says Mehmood A. Khwaja, senior advisor at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Islamabad. “It pollutes the environment and negatively impacts human health.”
http://www.scidev.net/south-asia/environment/news/gold-panning-leaves-toxic-mercury-trail-in-pakistan.html