A monitoring study of Hg distribution in soils and air (pedogenic and atmospheric) in residential settlements and surrounding areas with high natural geochemical Hg background and/or affected by man-caused impacts due to mining activities has been performed. Sites of the AltaiSayan mercury province have been studied: part of the Kurai mercury zone (Aktash settlement, Kurai campo, Chazan-Uzun settlement, Altai Republic) and part of the Ursk ore field (Ursk settlement and Ursk tailing dump, Kemerovo region). The third site is located in Kuznetsk Alatau (part of the Saralinsky gold ore cluster, settlement of Priiskovy and its tailing dump, the settlement of Ordzhonikidzevsky, Republic of Khakassia). Hg background concentrations in air and soils have been detected.