Assessing the impacts of small-scale mining in eastern Indonesia

From an environmental perspective, it is known that ASM can lead to heavy metal contamination in rivers and coastal ecosystems, toxic health effects in miners who process gold and manganese ores, increased soil erosion and sedimentation, and reduced agricultural production. During this project, which will run until June 2016, Indonesian officials will be trained to use geographical information systems to map mining sites and measure contamination in local waterways.
http://phys.org/news/2015-05-impacts-small-scale-eastern-indonesia.html