Contamination by mercury used in small-scale gold mining has resulted in high mercury levels in Indigenous women in communities downstream from gold mining operations in Peru and Nicaragua, according to a new study by IPEN. The study found that almost all women tested (99%) had body levels of mercury above the safety threshold recommended recently by experts, and most (88%) had levels above the current US EPA safety levels. Next month, the Minamata Convention on Mercury holds its sixth Conference of Parties meeting, and today IPEN is co-hosting a pre-COP webinar to highlight the concerns around mercury used in gold mining.
Small-scale gold mining (sometimes called “artisanal” small-scale gold mining or ASGM) continues to rely on the use of mercury, a toxic metal known to impact the developing fetus with potentially lifelong effects on children’s intellectual and physical development. Mercury contamination from such gold mining operations is the leading contributor to global mercury pollution, with toxic impacts on Indigenous peoples, workers, children, and local communities around the world. Previous studies have concluded that mercury contamination of fish in waterways by small-scale mining is the likely cause of high mercury levels found in Indigenous Peoples living even hundreds of kilometers downstream from mining operations.
The Minamata Convention on Mercury provides regulations for some uses of the substance, but the use of mercury in small-scale gold mining continues to be permitted. IPEN and other environmental, Indigenous rights, health, and human rights groups have called for the Convention to be amended to phase-out mercury in gold mining and end the mercury trade. The Convention Conference of Parties (COP) will meet this November 3-7 in Geneva.
As Dr. Marcos Orellana, UN Special Rapporteur on toxics and human rights states in the foreword to the report, "The human rights and environmental injustices caused by mercury use in small-scale gold mining have been widely documented. The ongoing allowable use of mercury in small-scale gold mining is compromising the right to clean food sources of millions of people around the world."
