The use of mercury in artisanal and small-scale gold mining is a huge problem. It’s a highly toxic substance, but miners use mercury to separate the gold from the soil. When they burn the amalgam made up of gold and mercury, it evaporates into the atmosphere, but comes back to Earth in rainfall. You can breathe it in or ingest it by eating fish or other food that absorbs it. In addition, mercury occurs naturally in the environment, and the process of excavating minerals and stirring up soils releases it into the air. In extreme circumstances, you end up with Minamata disease as a result of severe mercury poisoning — your limbs go numb and shake, you lose your vision, you become impotent. The symptoms are similar to malaria, so the two are often confused.
Artisanal and small-scale gold mining has historically been the biggest driver of deforestation for Guyana. When you look at gold prices on the world market and at deforestation rates, there’s a high correlation between the two.
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