Future strategies for tackling mercury pollution in the artisanal gold mining sector: Making the Minamata Convention work

Clifford, Martin

doi:10.1016/j.futures.2014.05.001

Cited by 40 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Previous work at ASGM sites in Ecuador suggest that using evidence to increase awareness of ASGM-associated risks among miners can lead to increased action to reduce these risks [Adler Miserendino et al, 2013]. In fact, education of miners is likely the most influential means for enacting change from these traditional methods of mercury-gold amalgamation to less risk-intensive mining practices that can simultaneously increase gold recovery [Spiegel et al, 2006;Adler Miserendino et al, 2013;Clifford, 2014], particularly when this education blends technical knowledge with traditional knowledge [Spiegel et al, 2015]. In Senegal, many miners are already organized in a mining collective group; this infrastructure could provide a means for changing miners' practices, as miner organization in Portovelo-Zaruma, Ecuador has shown to be effective at reducing environmental and occupational risks associated with ASGM [Velásquez-López et al, 2010].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Senegalese artisanal gold mining leads to elevated total mercury and methylmercury concentrations in soils, sediments, and rivers

Gerson

Driscoll

Hsu‐Kim

et al. 2018

Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene

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Gerson, JR, et al. 2018 Senegalese artisanal gold mining leads to elevated total mercury and methylmercury concentrations in soils, sediments, and rivers. Elem Sci Anth, 6: 11. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/elementa.274 Introduction Mercury (Hg) -predominantly in the form of methylmercury (MeHg) -is a potent neurotoxin that can significantly impair human health [Driscoll et al., 2013]. Prolonged exposure increases the risk for brain and neurological damage, which is especially harmful for pregnant women and children [Harada, 1995; Grandjean et al., 1997;Selin, 2014]. Although there are many potential sources of Hg, direct inhalation from anthropogenic emissions and consumption of fish constitute the major pathways of human exposure. Even when Hg concentrations are low in water, Hg concentrations can reach dangerously high levels in fish due to bioaccumulation and biomagnification [Morel et al., 1998; Driscoll et al., 2007]. Controlling Hg contamination in the environment has been a primary target of local and national health and environmental agendas for decades and, most recently, an issue of international concern addressed by the 2013 Minamata Convention on Mercury, which came into force in August 2017 [UNEP, 2013;Selin, 2014].The largest source of Hg to the environment is artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM), which releases 1,400 tons of Hg annually into the air, soil, and water [Schmidt, 2012] and accounts for an estimated 37% of global anthropogenic Hg emissions [Telmer and Veiga, 2009; UNEP, 2013]. In the process of ASGM, liquid elemental Hg (Hg 0 ) is utilized to separate gold from sediments. After the formation of a Hg-gold amalgam, the mixture is heated to create pellets of gold, while the Hg is released into the atmosphere or deposited as mining waste directly into soil and water. Despite the health effects, many of which are unknown to ASGM communities, Hg is used in this process because it is inexpensive to obtain, easy to use, does not require time-consuming processing, and results in a high gold recovery rate [Telmer and Veiga, 2009] It is estimated that more than 10 million people, including over 3 million women and children, work in ASGM across more than 70 developing countries in Asia, South America, and sub-Saharan Africa. Families directly involved in the mining are exposed daily to levels of Hg vapor that far exceed the World Health Organization's guidelines [Cordy et al., 2011] The largest source of global mercury (Hg) anthropogenic inputs to the environment is derived from artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) activities in developing countries. While our understanding of global Hg emissions from ASGM is growing, there is limited empirical documentation about the levels of total mercury (THg) and methylmercury (MeHg) contamination near ASGM sites. We measured THg and MeHg concentrations in soil (n = 119), sediment (n = 22), and water (n = 25) from four active ASGM villages and one non-ASGM reference village in Senegal, West Africa. Nearly all samples had THg and MeHg concent...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Senegalese artisanal gold mining leads to elevated total mercury and methylmercury concentrations in soils, sediments, and rivers

Gerson

Driscoll

Hsu‐Kim

et al. 2018

Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene

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“…A small but emerging body of scholarship is focusing on the Minamata Convention as a global environmental governance instrument that beckons the re-conceptualization of multi-scalar resource management and risk mitigation challenges (Selin, 2014;Clifford, 2014;Spiegel et al, 2015 text of the Minamata Convention also stipulates that each country where ASM activity is "more than insignificant" should "take steps to facilitate the formalization or regulation" of the ASM sector and "submit its National Action Plan to the Secretariat no later than three years after entry into force of the Convention" (Article 7, Paragraph 3b). However, the Convention text merely assumes that "space" is available for "formalizing" ASM, without engaging spatial issues at all, thereby leaving it to the countries themselves to create specific strategic priorities.…”

Section: The Minimata Convention As An Impetus For Formalizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Land and ‘space’ for regulating artisanal mining in Cambodia: Visualizing an environmental governance conundrum in contested territory

Spiegel

2016

Land Use Policy

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Globally, land use competition in mining areas is coming under increased scrutiny, leading to critical debates about inter-related physical and political "spaces" for environmental governance. By signing a global treaty called the Minamata Convention on Mercury, governments worldwide have conveyed a commitment to formalizing or regulating informal artisanal gold mining as part of an environmental governance strategy. Drawing on a case study of disputed gold mining territory in Kratie Province, Cambodia, this article examines how commitment to the Minamata Convention presents a conundrum given the government's prioritization of larger-scale concessions in land use policy. In most mineralrich regions of Kratie and other provinces, mineral exploration and/or mining rights -and other kinds of resource concessions -have already been granted to established companies and powerful actors, leaving ambiguous physical and political space for licensing artisanal mining. The article explores contested representations of mining as found in provincial government maps and civil society groups' cartoon illustrations, unpacking how competing mandates in the mining sector have created dilemmas for regional environmental governance as complex land-use conflicts between artisanal miners and larger companies have unfolded. Diverse competing claims to resources in Kratie illustrate the need to move beyond framings of the Minamata Convention as a technical implementation challenge in order to carefully appreciate the power dynamics inherent in divergent ways of visualizing "productive space" in mining regions. Contributing to recent scholarship in this journal on contested land use governance in Cambodia, the article calls for unpacking complexities of formally "making space" for artisanal mining in contested territory. At a wider conceptual level, the analysis highlights the importance of sensitively challenging common de-territorialized depictions of land use formalization that oversimplify the dialectical and contextually idiosyncratic interplays between political and physical space.

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“…Jønsson et al (2013) suggest possible explanations for the fact that artisanal miners continue to use mercury haphazardly and underrate its health impacts, and discuss possible ways to facilitate mercury reduction. While Clifford (2014) acknowledges that there are some positive signs that academics and policymakers are reaching a new consensus on how to tackle the issue more effectively, he advocates more 'humanistic' reconceptualisations of approaches to mercury pollution in the sector. Spiegel et al (2014) outline possible ways to address intertwined technological, political and socio-economic challenges facing marginalized populations in mining communities.…”

Section: Artisanal Gold Mining and Mercurymentioning

confidence: 99%

Artisanal gold mining in Antioquia, Colombia: a successful case of mercury reduction

García

Veiga

Cordy

et al. 2015

Journal of Cleaner Production

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Future strategies for tackling mercury pollution in the artisanal gold mining sector: Making the Minamata Convention work

Cited by 40 publications

References 17 publications

Senegalese artisanal gold mining leads to elevated total mercury and methylmercury concentrations in soils, sediments, and rivers

Senegalese artisanal gold mining leads to elevated total mercury and methylmercury concentrations in soils, sediments, and rivers

Land and ‘space’ for regulating artisanal mining in Cambodia: Visualizing an environmental governance conundrum in contested territory

Artisanal gold mining in Antioquia, Colombia: a successful case of mercury reduction

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