Michael Casey

Mercury in Mining: a Third World Toxic Threat

A gold miner stands waist-deep in a polluted pond, dumps a capful of mercury into a bucket of ore and mixes it in with his bare hands.

Awas Kehabisan! Pendaftaran Mudik Gratis Moda Bus Kembali Dibuka, Kuota 10.000 Orang

The darting liquid metal wraps itself around the gold to form a silver pellet the size of a marble.

The use of mercury in gold mining is illegal in Indonesia because it is toxic to both human health and the environment. But the price of gold has tripled since 2001, and mercury is the easiest way to extract it.

Banyak yang Mudik H-4, Menhub Minta Maskapai Berikan Promo di H-10

Tens of thousands of remote mining sites have sprung up mostly in Asia, Latin America and Africa, using as much as 1,000 tons of mercury each year. The mercury ravages the nervous system of miners and their families. It also travels thousands of miles in the atmosphere, settling in oceans and river beds in Europe and North America and moving up the food chain into fish.

Small-scale gold mining is the second-worst source of mercury pollution in the world, after the burning of fossil fuels. And Indonesia ranks behind only China in the use of mercury in gold mining.

Anak Selebgram Aghnia Punjabi Diduga Dianiaya Pengasuh, Badan Diduduki hingga Kepala Dibanting

Mercury's impact is evident in mining regions like Central Kalimantan, on the island of Borneo. Acres of tropical forest are now virtual desert. Villagers say fish populations have dropped by 70 percent. The Galangan gold mining site stretches several miles, stripped of trees and dotted with mercury-laced ponds.

Despite the hazards, buying mercury at gold mining sites is as easy as purchasing toothpaste. The international trade in mercury is largely unregulated. And most of the 55 countries where small-scale gold mining is rife lack the political will or capacity to prevent the toxic metal from falling into the hands of 10 to 15 million poor miners.

According to Michael Bender, a coordinator for the Zero Mercury Working Group, a coalition of 40 groups worldwide that campaigns to reduce mercury use, continued use of mercury in gold mining threatens millions of people all over the world because it is a global air pollutant. It has indirect effect on others, not just miners. It is a neurotoxin that science has clearly shown threatens pregnant women, their fetus and those who eat large amounts of fish.

---

The use of mercury in gold mining goes back thousands of years. The Romans forced slaves and criminals to extract gold and silver with mercury.

By the 20th century, mining companies had abandoned mercury in favor of chemicals like cyanide. But small-scale miners like it because it's easy to use, fast, cheap and leaves the gold cleaner than traditional panning.

Traders once relied on mercury from Spain, Algeria, China and Kyrgyzstan, but most mines are now shut and China only supplies its own market. So mercury comes from the leftover stockpiles of shuttered mines or the dozens of companies in Europe and the United States that recycle the metal from old light bulbs, batteries or industrial waste, according to the U.N. and the Zero Mercury Working Group.

Flasks of mercury worth hundreds of dollars are sold into an opaque and largely unregulated network of brokers who crisscross the globe, according to Peter Maxson, a Brussels-based expert on the trade. They divert mercury supplied for legal purposes to the gold mines instead, where it can fetch prices 10 times higher than on the global market, he said.

In fact, Pablo Huidobro, a project manager for the U.N. Industrial Development Organization's Global Mercury Project, said that countries import several hundred times the mercury they need for dental and other legal uses. The excess makes its way to the miners through the black market.

Maxson and other experts said it can be almost impossible to track the liquid metal as it passes through brokers and even criminal gangs on its way to a gold mine. A flask of mercury can originate in Spain, be sold to brokers in India, go on to popular transit points like Singapore or Vietnam and then get dumped in Indonesia.

The United States alone exported nearly 498 tons of mercury in 2007, up from 378 tons in 2006. It mostly was sent to Canada, Suriname, Hong Kong and Mexico, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

According to Maxson, the whole trade is very secretive. Companies dealing mercury won't reveal who their customers are or even who the end users are.

Experts in the trade say D.F.G. Mercury Corp. and Bethlehem Apparatus are among the top suppliers of mercury worldwide. Robert Goldsmith, president of D.F.G. Mercury Corp. of Evanston, Ill., said he sells his mercury domestically but acknowledged it can be difficult to determine what happens to it. Bruce Lawrence, president of Bethlehem Apparatus in Hellertown, Pa., declined to discuss the trade. On its Web site, Bethlehem describes itself as a global supplier of prime virgin and high purity mercury.

Mercury traders say it's unfair to blame them for what happens at gold mining sites. Howard Masters, the managing director of Lambert Metals International, a British company that sells 25,000 to 30,000 flasks of mercury yearly worldwide, said that if countries such as China, Indonesia and South America do not want mercury to be used in artisanal gold mining areas, it is up to the government themselves to stop importing it because all imports into these countries are only allowable under license. However, Masters said, don't genuine consumption of mercury around the world, where it has very good uses and is not an environmental problem when used correctly.

Marc Claushuis, director of the Dutch firm Claushuis Metals, which sells 200 tons of mercury each year to Latin America, Africa and Europe, is one example of a seller who is frustrated over his inability to control its use. He knows that he sends his end product to countries where it gets a lot of pollution but there is not much he can do.

Once in Indonesia, mercury is trafficked through chemical shops in big cities like Surabaya or Jakarta and transported to mine sites in energy drink and vitamin bottles to avoid detection. It ends up behind the counters of gold shops in Central Kalimantan, Papua and North Sulawesi.

Indonesia periodically tears down illegal gold mining camps and slapped a ban on mercury use in mining three years ago, but mercury prices then doubled. Irwanto Thomas, a government environmental official in Central Kalimantan, acknowledged that mercury is widely used and will remain so until miners have better opportunities.

---

The dusty main street of the Indonesian gold mining town of Kerengpangi is lined with dozens of gold shops. It takes only a gentle inquiry to send a shop owner scurrying to a back room for the mercury.

Mercury is easily found at most mining sites worldwide. In Africa, miners buy it in small plastic bags stored in Tupperware containers or Vitamin C tubes. In Peru, it is sold in dental shops.

In gold mines, as much as one to three grams of mercury are lost for every gram of gold produced. But mercury is a slow and silent killer, so miners scoff at health concerns. They recall how they breathed mercury fumes or handled the toxic liquid for years with no problems. Some Indonesian miners have even smeared mercury on their skin in the belief it will make them stronger, according to a U.N. report.

Numbers of people killed or disabled by mercury are impossible to nail down, experts say. But tests on miners in Indonesia, the Philippines, Colombia, Guyana, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Brazil found mercury levels up to 50 times above World Health Organization limits, according to a 2006 U.N. report. Symptoms such as reduced motor skills, fatigue and weight loss are routine at mining sites, the U.N. said. Gold shop owners also breathe the mercury vapor they burn off.

The U.N. has spent $7 million in six countries, including Indonesia, to educate miners and gold shops about mercury. The European Union agreed earlier this year to ban mercury exports from 2011. And President George W. Bush signed a bill in October sponsored by Sen. Barack Obama, now president-elect, that bans all elemental mercury exports by 2013.

Mercury recyclers argued that bans would promote the mining of more mercury and shift the export trade from Western countries to developing nations like India.

Already, 83 percent of mercury in the U.S. is believed to come from abroad, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and 44 states have issued health advisories about eating contaminated fish. According to Kelvin Telmer, an expert on small-scale mining at the University of Victoria in Canada, the motivating factor for the governments at the highest level is a strong recognition that mercury is a global pollutant and it is clear that small-scale mining is adding to the global mercury problem.

 

* Michael Casey is an environmental writer for the Associated Press.

Halaman Selanjutnya
Halaman Selanjutnya