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1998 | Buch

The Use of Mercury Amalgamation in Gold and Silver Mining Kapitel lesen Erstes Kapitel lesen

Mercury from Gold and Silver Mining: A Chemical Time Bomb?

verfasst von: Dr. Luiz D. de Lacerda, Professor Dr. Wim Salomons

Verlag: Springer Berlin Heidelberg

Buchreihe : Environmental Science and Engineering

Enthalten in: Professional Book Archive

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Über dieses Buch

Due to its inherent characteristics, mercury contamination from gold mining is a major environmental problem compared to past mercury contamination from industrial point sources. The worsening of social-economical conditions and increasing gold prices in the late 1970s resulted in a new rush for gold by individual entrepreneurs for whom Hg amalgamation is a cheap and easily carried out operation. Even after the present-day mining areas are exhausted, the mercury left behind will remain part of the biochemical cycle of the tropical forest. This book reviews the current information on mercury from gold mining, its cycling in the environment and its long-term ecotoxicological impact. The book is illustrated with numerous diagrams and photographs.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter
1. The Use of Mercury Amalgamation in Gold and Silver Mining
Abstract
Metallic mercury has been known to man from at least 3500 B. P. The famous archaeologist, H. Schliemamm, discovered a small vessel full of mercury in a grave at Kurna, Egypt, dating back to 1600 to 1700 years B. C. Cinnabar, the primary mercury-bearing ore composed of mercuric sulfide, has probably been used as pigment since prehistoric times. The use of Hg in the mining industry to amalgamate and concentrate precious metals probably dates back to the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, who commercialized Hg from Almadén mines in Spain as earlier as 2700 B. P. Pliny, in his Natural History, provided the first detailed description of the amalgamation process as a common gold and silver mining technique at the beginning of the present era. This technology, however, had widespread use only by the Romans around the year 50 A. D. (Mellor 1952). Analyses of these descriptions, dating back nearly 2100 years, show distinct similarities with the procedures presently applied in many gold mining areas in the world.
Luiz D. de Lacerda, Wim Salomons
2. Estimating Losses of Mercury to the Environment
Abstract
The release of mercury from gold and silver mining is of great environmental significance, since this process of mining and production of precious metals is known to be of very low efficiency (Mallas and Benedicto 1986; Souza and Lins 1989; Nriagu 1993b). Correct estimates of the total amount of Hg released to the environment from these semi-artisanal mining processes, however, are very difficult to obtain. Gold and silver, on the other hand, are very precious metals and even in Roman times the quantities produced were carefully noted. Therefore, if the steps in the production and the Hg losses in each step are known, one could estimate more accurately the amount of Hg released into the environment using gold and silver production figures. Emission factors (EF), i. e. the amount of Hg released into the environment to produce 1.0 kg of silver or gold, are quite variable, depending on site, metal-containing material and concentration, and the extraction process used (Farid et al. 1991).
Luiz D. de Lacerda, Wim Salomons
3. Mercury in the Atmosphere
Abstract
Mercury emissions to the atmosphere due to precious metal mining and processing has been, until very recently, considered to be of relatively little importance compared with direct discharges into soils, tailings and rivers. However, better understanding of the whole production process, emission factors and the total amount of mercury involved has shown that Hg emission to the atmosphere from this type of mining is the most important source of this pollutant to the environment (Pfeiffer and Lacerda 1988; Hacon et al. 1990; Lacerda and Salomons 1991). It was shown in the last chapter that Hg emissions to the atmosphere represent 45 to 87% of the total Hg emitted from precious metal mining and may account for a global input of 200–420 tons year-1. These figures represent a contribution that can reach from 6 to 11% of the global anthropogenic atmospheric emission of mercury to the biosphere of 3550 tons year-1 (Nriagu 1990).
Luiz D. de Lacerda, Wim Salomons
4. Mercury in Tropical Aquatic and Terrestrial Systems
Abstract
The fate of Hg in water, sediments and soils in gold mining areas has been studied mostly in large surveys at a great number of mining sites, few however, have been studied in detail. Among the many sites, the Amazon region, including Brazil and Venezuela, Mindanao Island in the Philippines and a few last century USA gold rush sites, has been the subject of longterm studies concerning the fate of Hg in the environment. Unfortunately, however, even in these areas, few studies have dealt with geochemical and biogeochemical processes controlling Hg concentrations in water, sediments and soils.
Luiz D. de Lacerda, Wim Salomons
5. Mercury in Biota
Abstract
Terrestrial vegetation interacts with both soil and the atmosphere in the acquisition of Hg (Siegel et al. 1987). We have shown in previous chapters the importance of atmospheric Hg in the geochemical cycles in gold mining areas. Terrestrial plants can take up Hg from the atmosphere directly through gas exchange at the stomatal level or through membrane exchange with wet and dry precipitation (Browne and Fang 1978). These processes are likely to be enhanced in tropical vegetation due to the efficient mechanisms of chemical element acquisition from the atmosphere mediated by epiphyllous organisms, in particular algae and lichens (Jordan et al. 1980) at the crown leaf level, and those mediated by the high diversity and biomass of ephiphytes typical of most tropical ecosystems (Benzing 1981; Nadkarni 1984).
Luiz D. de Lacerda, Wim Salomons
6. Mercury Contamination of Humans in Gold and Silver Mining Areas
Abstract
Human contamination by Hg in gold and silver mining has been reported from various sites throughout the world, since the large-scale use of Hg was introduced as the major mining technique to produce silver in the Spanish colonial Americas (Galeano 1981). Present-day surveys carried out in many countries have shown that contamination is mostly reflected by higher Hg concentrations in body indicators (e. g., hair, urine, and blood). Nearly all surveys carried out at gold and silver mining sites worldwide have shown these concentrations to be higher than expected background levels. However, only a few studies had actually detected symptoms or clinical signs of Hg poisoning. Most health authorities agree that the lack of information on “mercurialism” among the exposed population is probably due to difficult logistics and the poor health conditions of the population which may mask symptoms of mercury poisoning.
Luiz D. de Lacerda, Wim Salomons
7. Perspectives on the Temporal Development of Mercury Inputs into the Environment
Abstract
Anthropogenic discharges of mercury are from electricity generation through coal and oil burning, solid and urban wastes, and from agriculture and forestry practices. These sources mobilize large amounts of Hg in the biosphere (ca. 11000 tons year-1; Table 7.1), while release through natural weathering processes is less than one tenth of those from anthropogenic sources (ca. 900 tons year-1). However, the mobilization of Hg from natural sources to the atmosphere of circa 2500 tons year-1 is, contrary to all other heavy metal pollutants, similar to the anthropogenic emissions to the atmosphere of nearly 3550 tons year-1 (Table 7.2). This natural atmospheric input is very high compared to all other heavy metals of environmental significance.
Luiz D. de Lacerda, Wim Salomons
8. Summary and Outlook
Abstract
It is difficult to draw parallels between mercury contamination in temperate climates, where most of the research has been carried out, and the tropical climates. Differences exist between the use of mercury (socioeconomic dimension) and its cycling in the environment (ecological dimension).
Luiz D. de Lacerda, Wim Salomons
Backmatter
Metadaten
Titel
Mercury from Gold and Silver Mining: A Chemical Time Bomb?
verfasst von
Dr. Luiz D. de Lacerda
Professor Dr. Wim Salomons
Copyright-Jahr
1998
Verlag
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Electronic ISBN
978-3-642-58793-1
Print ISBN
978-3-642-63734-6
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-58793-1