Artisanal & Small Scale Gold Mining: Best Practices towards Preventing Environmental Damage

Transcription

1 Artisanal & Small Scale Gold Mining: Best Practices towards Preventing Environmental Damage JANE DENNISON MERCURY PROGRAM OFFICER U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE JUNE 2012

2 Comparison: Gold v. Diamond ASM Similarities: Potential Mechanism for Development of Poor/Rural communities. Environmental degradation of ecologically important areas, especially the destruction of forests and the silting of waterways. Communities are often transitory. Importance of financing, property rights/land tenure regulations, and organization of miners towards developing solutions. Role of training and education for sustainability.

3 Comparison: Gold v. Diamond ASM Differences: Use of mercury as a cheap and available means to extract gold from ore. Relative ease of determining gold product s value. On-going UNEP-led negotiations on a global legallybinding instrument to reduce the use and release of mercury to the environment.

4 Mercury Pollution Artisanal and Small scale Gold Mining Up to 1350 ton/yr emitted into the environment from ASGM 40% to atmosphere 60% to aquatic systems 2005 Emissions: Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme/United Nations Environment Programme Chemicals Branch, Technical Background Report to the Global Atmospheric Mercury Assessment, Requested by UNEP Governing Council decision 24/3, 2008, Table Annual Emissions: Telmer, H. and Veiga, M World Emissions of mercury from artisanal and small scale gold mining and the knowledge gaps about them. In: N. Pirrone and R. Mason (ed.) Mercury Fate and Transport in the Global Atmosphere.

5 Mercury Pollution Artisanal and Small-scale Gold Mining ASGM is a source of livelihood for million people in around 70 countries Map from

6 Mercury a popular tool for artisanal miners It s (relatively) cheap. It s available. It s easy to use. Doesn t require expensive equipment. Why not use mercury? (many artisanal miners are not aware of the harmful health and environmental degradation effects of mercury)

7 Convincing miners to give up mercury Lessons learned from ASGM projects such as UNEP s Global Mercury Project : Artisanal miners are far more motivated to give up mercury when they are convinced that they can obtain higher gold yields using other extraction methods. They are often not terribly motivated by concerns for personal health or the environment. More Gold, Less Mercury, Better Health

8 ASGM Reduce High Risk Practices Applying mercury to whole ore uses large amounts of mercury Pre-concentrating ore significantly reduces amount of mercury used Photos: GMP pilot project in the Manica district of Mozambique mozambique/docs/moz_final_report_aug_2005.pdf

9 ASGM Reduce High Risk Practices Open-air burning of gold-mercury amalgam releases mercury directly into environment and communities Simple retorts reduce mercury exposure and allow reuse of mercury Left Photo: GMP Pilot project in the Manica district of Mozambique docs/moz_final_report_aug_2005.pdf Right Photo: Handelsman & Veiga. Social and Economic Aspects of Reducing Mercury Pollution in Artisanal Gold Mining. Canadian Institute of Mining Annual Meeting, Vancouver Canada, May 16,

10 ASGM Partnership Reduce High Risk Practices Mixing contaminated amalgam tailings with cyanide can create more mobile forms of mercury Photo: GMP Manual for Training Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Miners non_country%20specific/training%20manual%20for%20miners%20marcello%2015.pdf

11 Existing Mercury Reduction/Elimination Technologies For Processing Moving away from mercury whole-ore amalgamation Reducing open burning Retort use Vapour capture (gold shops) Reactivation of mercury Avoiding combining mercury and cyanide Zero mercury processing by direct smelting

12 Global Mercury Instrument Negotiations

13 UNEP Mercury Treaty An International Solution In February 2009, UNEP Governing Council called for negotiation of a global legally binding instrument to reduce mercury pollution UNEP Governing Council requests Global Legally Binding Instrument on Mercury Conference of Plenipotentiaries to Sign Treaty INC 1 INC 2 INC 3 INC 4 INC

14 UNEP Mercury Treaty Proposed ASGM Elements Countries with ASGM should reduce and when possible eliminate the use of mercury in ASGM Prevent import of mercury for ASGM and prevent recycled or recaptured mercury from entering ASGM Develop national/ regional action plans with objectives and reduction targets Prohibit specific practices like whole ore amalgamation The report on the recent negotiations: Negotiations/INC3/INC3Report/tabid/3488/language/en- US/Default.aspx

15 U.S. Department of State Mercury Projects- ASGM sector Assisting in the development of practical environmental, health, and safety regulations in ASM sector (Nigeria- Zamfara State lead poisoning) Capacity building and training of artisanal miners (Peru, Burkina Faso) Assisting with plans for an International Training Center for Artisanal Miners (Ecuador) Baseline mercury inventories- surveys to estimate the use, source, and trade of mercury. Mercury storage (Philippines/Indonesia)

16 Thank you! FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: Jane Dennison: or visit: UNEP Mercury Legally Binding Instrument: tabid/3320/default.aspx UNEP Mercury Partnership: PrioritiesforAction/ArtisanalandSmallScaleGoldMining/tabid/3526/ Default.aspx