WHO Guidance: Developing public health strategies for artisanal and small-scale mining within the Minamata Convention on Mercury

 Mercury amalgamation remains the preferred method to extract gold employed in artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) worldwide. Liquid elemental mercury is added to an ore slurry to bind to gold and form a gold–mercury complex (amalgam). When gold is separated from mercury in the smelting process, high concentrations of mercury vapours are released. People working and living in ASGM communities are exposed to mercury mainly through inhalation of these toxic vapours. Furthermore, mercury dust is deposited on surfaces (walls, clothes, tools) and released to the environment, where microorganisms in water and soil convert elemental mercury into organic methylmercury, which accumulates in the food chain.

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