The Problem With Small Scale Mining

The Harmful Effects of Mining with Mercury

Ghana has an estimated one million small-scale gold miners, and they commonly use mercury to process gold. They mix the mercury with the ore to create a gold-mercury amalgam, and then burn the mercury off so the raw gold remains. Miners mix elemental liquid mercury with gold deposits and then burn off the mercury using kerosene torches to separate out the gold. The toxic gases can move into the air and atmosphere and settle into land and water, making the consequences scattered and insidious.

“Once used for gold processing, mercury-contaminated
water is often dumped on the ground, polluting
Ghana’s rivers and lakes”

Small-scale mining is now recognized as the number-one emitter of atmospheric mercury around the world. Mercury pollution is especially alarming for public health and the environment. Mercury is highly toxic and can cause brain bleeding and acute illness from direct or continued contact, but it is also persistent and bio-accumulative, meaning it builds up in human bodies through meat and plants we eat and can last in the environment for decades. Mercury exposure has been linked to a range of neurological, cardiovascular and other illnesses as well as stunted fetal development and developmental delays and disorders.