Mercury in the Environment of the Central Part of the Balkan Peninsula

The mercury occurs as cinnabar and in different ore minerals. Its concentration depends on the geological conditions at the time when mercury migrated upwards: the most favourable during the rifting periods (Triassic rifting in the Dinarides), less favourable during postcollisional phases (the Vardar zone and the Serbo-Macedonian mass), and unfavourable over a subducted plate (the Upper Cretaceous Timok volcanic zone — TVZ).In the TVZ a vertical zonality in the mercury distribution is evident: the deepest generated ores are the poorest and the mineralization originated in the highest levels the richest. However, the metallurgical treatment even of the in mercury poorest ores, because of high production, induce ecological damage.