Marcos Orellana, the UN’s special reporter on toxics and human rights called for an end to mining, exporting and trading mercury, as well as a ban on the use of mercury in small-scale gold mining in a presentatio before the United Nations Human Rights Council on Sept.20.
Artisanal gold mining is driving the global demand for mercury, with 2,058 metric tons of the toxic metal contaminating water, land and air every year, according to a recent report ' Mercury, Small Time Gold Mining and Human Rights'.
According to the report, an estimated 10 mn to 15 mn people were directly engaged in small-scale gold mining in 2017, including an estimated 1 mn child workers and 4.5 mn women. It generates up to 20% of the global gold supply annually, equivalent to approximately 500 tons, with a market value of almost $29 billion annually.
Orellana, who teaches international environmental law at George Washington University in the U.S., found that the demand for mercury used in small-scale gold mining stems from three key regions: South America (39%), East and Southeast Asia (37%), and sub-Saharan Africa (21%). Most small-scale gold mining in South America is centered in the Amazon. In Brazil, it has gone 'big scale.'
According to MapBiomas, a research collective that tracks land use changes through satellite imagery, small-scale gold mining in 2018 overtook industrial mining in scale, covering 107,800 hectares (266,000 acres) in 2020, 94% of it in the Amazon.
The Inter-governmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development (IGF) estimates there are more than 450,000 artisanal miners, or garimpeiros, in Brazil. More than 20,000 operate illegally inside the Yanomami Indigenous Territory alone.
Small-scale gold mining not only destroys vast areas of forests, leaving moon crater-like wasteland in its wake. The most devastating aspect, for both miners and people worldwide, is the use of mercury to extract the gold from the ore.
Also known as quicksilver, mercury is liquid at room temperature. When heated, it evaporates into the atmosphere or washes away into rivers, lakes and oceans, contaminating fish and thus entering the food chain.
Aruna Gaitonde, Editor in Chief of the Asian Bureau, Rough&Polished
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