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Table 3 Mercury pollution from artisanal/small scale gold mining

From: Metal(loid) speciation and transformation by aerobic methanotrophs

Mercury emissions from artisanal and small scale gold mining, estimated at 727 tonnes per annum, account for a large portion of emissions from anthropogenic sources (37% [28];). Telmer and colleagues also estimated the contribution of artisanal and small scale gold mining to mercury releases between 640 and 1350 tonnes per year from at least 70 countries, with at least 350 tonnes emitted directly into the atmosphere while the remainder are released into the rivers, lakes, soil and tailings [29]. In small developing countries such as Guyana (Fig. 4), the gold mining industry is economically significant, where it contributed 13.7% to the total GDP of the country and accounted for more than 60% of total exports (USD 817.5 million) in 2017 [30]. The artisanal, small and medium scale operators, who contribute approximately two thirds of total gold declarations, rely almost exclusively on the use of mercury for gold extraction and concentration while the large scale companies utilise higher-recovering technologies with more control over environmental and safety risks [31]. Mercury is often added to the collected unprocessed gold ore in order to create a mercury-gold amalgam which is then heated to release the mercury and recapture the gold in concentrate. Most of the mercury vapour generated during burning of the amalgam may be collected by a retort, thus reducing mercury emissions by over 93%. However, studies in Guyana and Suriname have shown that while miners have some knowledge of the negative health and environmental effects of burning amalgams in the open air, they do not regularly use retorts for a variety of reasons, with the most common cited as the retorts being ‘too time-consuming’ [32, 33].

In addition, mercury is sometimes used in sluice boxes and in panning which can also contaminate tailings, creeks and rivers which will leach into the surrounding environment. In the Minamata Initial Assessment conducted for Guyana, over 11,000 kg of mercury is estimated to be emitted annually in Guyana by burning of a mercury-gold amalgam, with 39% released in the air, 32% in water and 29% in land [33]. Mercury emitted to the atmosphere can be deposited into aqueous environments by wet and dry depositions, and some can be re-emitted into the atmosphere. In surveys carried out by the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (2000 and 2001) in three rivers within two different mining regions of Guyana, it was found that 57%, 39% and 25% of predatory fishes sampled had mercury levels above the maximum World Health Organization guideline concentration (0.5 μg/g). Data from neighbouring Suriname and French Guiana, where mercury use in mining is also abundant, also indicate high levels of mercury contamination in fish [34]. In a study by Howard and colleagues, sediments taken from active and historically mined areas in Guyana had a mean mercury concentration of 0.229 μg/g, with a range from 0.029 to 1.2 μg/g, which is above Canadian Environmental quality guidelines (0.19 μg/g) [35]. There is also a lack of extensive data on mercury contamination in communities surrounding mining activities in Guyana. A study conducted from 2008 to 2010 by Singh and colleagues reported mercury concentrations of up to 70.8 μg/g (well over the WHO safe limit of 10 μg/g) in the hair of pregnant and nursing women from indigenous populations living close to small scale gold mining activities [36].

Mercury has a long history of uncontrolled use in the mining sector of Guyana resulting in significant environmental pollution of waterways and aquatic ecosystems. The Government of Guyana has, however, signed the Minamata Convention and has subsequently aimed to phase out the use of mercury by 2022, with particular attention to the gold mining sector as part of this commitment. However, it has witnessed resistance by small miners who have not been able to adapt to other techniques as there is general lack of awareness and understanding of these technologies, along with a lack of fiscal incentives and barriers to accessing finance to transition from this cheaper alternative [31, 33, 37].