Colonel Ricardo Alberto Suárez Rátiva, the commander of the 3rd Marine Corps Brigade, explained to Diálogo that amateur miners use mercury in their mining process. “To get one gram of gold, the ratio is more or less two grams of mercury, it’s two to one. And a special connotation is that Colombia does not produce mercury.
However, the use of that metallic chemical element in gold mining represents a hazard not only to those who handle it. “The mercury issue can manifest as cancer, or as deformities in babies and sterility in men,” Col. Suárez added. “It can also affect people’s nervous system.”
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