Mercury in soils impacted by alluvial gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon.

 Gold mining is the largest source of mercury (Hg) pollution worldwide. The discharge of mercury in the environment bears direct human health risks and is likely to increase cascading effects throughout local food chains. In the Peruvian Amazon the mining process consists of slashing and burning trees, followed by extraction of gold-bearing sediment, amalgamation with Hg and gold recovery, leading each year to the degradation of 6,000-10,000 ha and the release of 180 metric tons of Hg per year to the enviroment.

read more... https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Mercury-in-soils-impacted-by-alluvial-gold-mining-Ram%C3%ADrez-Ruiz/d495fa7eb1561b40f25f0f4aea63d6228fbd2833