There is a variety of health and environmental issues associated with artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM), which includes concerns regarding mercury pollution. In many countries, intervention programs and policies emphasized the importance of reducing mercury use by focusing on viable alternative methods to amalgamation that may include a transition to cyanidation. ASGM communities that now employ a combination of both methods may be increasing health and environmental risks by using mercury-contaminated tailings in the cyanidation process. This review provides a current overview of mercury and cyanide use in ASGM including the dangers of centralized processing centers that lack best practices. The combination of amalgamation and cyanidation has the potential to adversely affect many ASGM communities around the world and necessitates additional investigations to determine environmental and health impacts.
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Cyanide and cyanidation wastes management in gold leaching plants in Siaya County, Kenya.
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Faculty of Law, Centre for Advanced Studies in Environmental Law and Policy (CASELAP), University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya.
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Institute of Chemistry, University of Brasília, Asa Norte, Brasilia 70910-900, Brazil.
Artisanal small-scale gold mining (ASGM), an increasingly prevalent activity in South America, generates mercury-contaminated tailings that are often disposed of in the environment, leading to the introduction of mercury into ecosystems and the food web, where it bioaccumulates. Therefore, studying the geochemical processes involved in the desorption and dissolution of mercury in these tailings is essential for critical risk evaluations in the short and long term. For this purpose, sequential extraction procedures (SEPs) can be useful because they help to identify the phases to which Hg is associated, although they also have limitations such as a lack of selectivity and specificity.
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Article Synopsis
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- Analysis of soil and water samples showed peak mercury levels near amalgam burning sites, with significant health hazards identified for both adults and children who live close to these areas.
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Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos, CSIC-UCLM-JCCM, Ronda de Toledo 12, 13005, Ciudad Real, Spain. Electronic address:
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School of Environmental Studies, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430074, China.
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