Mercury and gold mining in Colombia: a failed state

Abstract

consequences that generate the high consumption of mercury in gold mining activities is an international country's gold mines have no mining title and only and environmental lawlessness, the failures of importation controls on the supply are the cause of the high consumption of mercury in Colombian evidenced the miners' partiality in favor of the use of mercury in the procurement of gold; the process is government has opted for a policy of persecution of the activity rather than the promotion of their

Factors Associated with High Mercury Levels in Women and Girls from The Mojana Region, Colombia, 2013–2015

“…In addition, ASGM is a common occupation in some of Colombia's departments, such as Antioquia, Bolivar, and Sucre. Informal mining is common and is directly associated with illegal mining along with the failure of mining formalization programs and a lack of control over the importation of mercury [22].…”

Historical reconstruction of Small-scale gold mining activities in tropical wetland sediments in Bajo Cauca-Antioquia, Colombia

“…This increase in investment implied that Colombia was the largest importer of mercury in Latin America and the Caribbean, with about 130 tons of mercury imported in 2011, 75% of which was used in ASGM activities. That represented the release of between 50 and 100 tons of Hg into the environment (Güiza and Aristizabal, 2013).…”

“…This link is clearly evident between the close relationship between the evolution of the mining economy (% GNP) in Colombia and the flux of Hg recorded in the Las Palmas wetland area (Figure 7). Although there is a clear increase in the Hg flux since 1970, the income that contributes to the gross domestic product due to mining activity has decreased since 2005 due to intermittences in the international price of gold (Güiza and Aristizabal, 2013;Betancur-Corredor et.al., 2018) and not only related to the ASGM activities in Antioquia. Therefore, historical trends in metal concentration in sediments from Las Palmas wetland reflect the degree of socio-economic development in the basin and can be used as a good proxy for evaluating anthropogenic impacts in the area.…”

“…This increases the conflict between economically profitable ventures and natural ecosystems (Kahhat et al, 2019). An example of this conflict is Colombia, where ASGM constitutes about 2% of Gross Domestic Product GDP (Güiza and Aristizabal, 2013) and plays an important role in the national economy. In 2010, the ASGM sector in Colombia had 200000 miners officially producing 30 t of gold per year.…”

Homemade copper-silver plates as an alternative for cleaning mercury-contaminated tailings from artisanal and small-scale gold mining in Colombia

“…Colombian artisanal miner must follow 280 steps to formalize an operation (Veiga & Marshall, 2019). Güiza Suárez and Aristizabal (2013) mentioned that only 13% of the artisanal gold miners have mineral titles and only 3% have environmental licenses in Colombia. Frequently these titles and licenses are not updated, but miners and ore processors wrongly believe that the permits are forever valid to protect them against any police enforcement.…”