Mercury has an uncanny ability to bind to precious metals, and for millennia, people have
used it to mine gold and silver. Small-scale, or "artisanal," mining — which makes use of
mercury in this way — has recently become the leading source of mercury pollution, several
recent studies show.
Mining releases mercury into the air when it is burned off to isolate gold from a chunk of rock
or slurry; it also seeps into the soil and rivers from water used in the process and runoff from
rainwater, contaminated by materials left behind from mining operations.
http://tamararubin.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/mercuryGold.pdf
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