Mercury in gold mining poses toxic threat

Global trafficking
Mercury traders say it's unfair to blame them for what happens at gold mining sites.

"If people don't want mercury to be used in artisanal gold mining areas, particularly in China, Indonesia and South America, then they should stop importing it," said Howard Masters, the managing director of Lambert Metals International, a British company that sells 25,000 to 30,000 flasks of mercury yearly worldwide.

"It is up to the governments themselves, as all imports into these countries are only allowable under license," he said. "But don't stop 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, expressed frustration over his inability to control its use.

"Of course, I feel unhappy ... You send your end product to countries where you know it gets a lot of pollution," he said. "There is not so much you 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.

"They ask what job we can provide them," Thomas said. "Until now, the government has not provided them with an answer."

A slow and silent killer
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.

"Sometimes, I sell mercury to the miners or just give it to them for free," said gold shop owner Rachmadi, who also trades gold for 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.

"Sometimes the gold and mercury gets into my mouth," said Sumardianto, a jovial 36-year-old miner who has dug for gold in Central Kalimantan since 1996 and lives in a tented camp with his wife. "I'm OK. I don't have any illnesses. I don't worry about using mercury."

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.

"What is motivating governments at the highest level is a strong recognition that mercury is a global pollutant," said Kevin Telmer, an expert on small-scale mining at the University of Victoria in Canada. "It's clear that small-scale mining is adding to the global mercury problem."

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