A Mercurial Gold Rush: What Modern Gold Fever is Doing to the Richest Ecosystem on our Planet

 In the Madre de Dios region of Peru, liquid mercury is used as a magnet for tiny flecks of gold buried in the soil and silt, barely visible to the human eye. The mercury binds to these flecks, creating an amalgam that is easy to sift out, and once the mercury is burned off, what is left behind is a solid piece of gold.

read more... https://www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/cid/voices/mercurial-gold-rush-what-modern-gold-fever-doing-richest-ecosystem-our-planet