Gold losses and mercury recovery in artisanal gold mining on the Madeira River, Brazil

Balzino, Michela; Seccatore, Jacopo; Marin, Tatiane; Tomi, Giorgio de; Veiga, Marcello M.

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.05.012

Cited by 41 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 19 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Collectively this practice represents a major global emission source of Hg to the atmosphere, with estimates ranging from 20 to 37 % of total anthropogenic Hg emissions (Lacerda 2003 ; Pirrone et al 2010 ; United Nations Environment Programme 2013 ). These estimations often rely on a mass balance approach for regional imports and exports and can have a high degree of uncertainty given the lack of reliable information (Malm 1998 ; Lacerda 2003 ; Li et al 2009 , 2014 ; Telmer and Veiga 2009 ; Grimaldi et al 2015 ) and few examples of directly quantified Hg emissions (Amouroux et al 1999 ; Balzino et al 2015 ). ASGM also increases health risks for workers (Gibb and O’Leary 2014 ; Kristensen et al 2014 ; Castilhos et al 2015 ) and riparian populations downstream of mining sites (Lebel et al 1997 ; Grandjean et al 1999 ; Maurice-Bourgoin et al 2000 ; Bastos et al 2006 ; Diringer et al 2015 ), as described in a companion paper (Eagles-Smith et al 2018 ).…”

Section: Gold Mining and Other Mining Activitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The type of ASGM techniques (such as material collection, processing, and disposal techniques) and the extent of accidental spills govern the amount of Hg release to the surrounding environment (Telmer and Veiga 2009 ; Balzino et al 2015 ). Increases in local soil Hg content (Malm et al 1995 ; van Straaten 2000 ) and soil erosion rates are common features of many ASGM areas (Swenson et al 2011 ), and together are the key aspects influencing Hg transport and exposure to downstream communities.…”

Section: Gold Mining and Other Mining Activitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Challenges and opportunities for managing aquatic mercury pollution in altered landscapes

Hsu‐Kim

Eckley

Achá

et al. 2018

Ambio

208

115

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The environmental cycling of mercury (Hg) can be affected by natural and anthropogenic perturbations. Of particular concern is how these disruptions increase mobilization of Hg from sites and alter the formation of monomethylmercury (MeHg), a bioaccumulative form of Hg for humans and wildlife. The scientific community has made significant advances in recent years in understanding the processes contributing to the risk of MeHg in the environment. The objective of this paper is to synthesize the scientific understanding of how Hg cycling in the aquatic environment is influenced by landscape perturbations at the local scale, perturbations that include watershed loadings, deforestation, reservoir and wetland creation, rice production, urbanization, mining and industrial point source pollution, and remediation. We focus on the major challenges associated with each type of alteration, as well as management opportunities that could lessen both MeHg levels in biota and exposure to humans. For example, our understanding of approximate response times to changes in Hg inputs from various sources or landscape alterations could lead to policies that prioritize the avoidance of certain activities in the most vulnerable systems and sequestration of Hg in deep soil and sediment pools. The remediation of Hg pollution from historical mining and other industries is shifting towards in situ technologies that could be less disruptive and less costly than conventional approaches. Contemporary artisanal gold mining has well-documented impacts with respect to Hg; however, significant social and political challenges remain in implementing effective policies to minimize Hg use. Much remains to be learned as we strive towards the meaningful application of our understanding for stakeholders, including communities living near Hg-polluted sites, environmental policy makers, and scientists and engineers tasked with developing watershed management solutions. Site-specific assessments of MeHg exposure risk will require new methods to predict the impacts of anthropogenic perturbations and an understanding of the complexity of Hg cycling at the local scale.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s13280-017-1006-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

show abstract

Section: Gold Mining and Other Mining Activitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Gold Mining and Other Mining Activitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Challenges and opportunities for managing aquatic mercury pollution in altered landscapes

Hsu‐Kim

Eckley

Achá

et al. 2018

Ambio

208

115

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In the Brazilian Amazon, GMA has been reported in subbasins such as Madeira, Trombetas, Xingu, and Tapajós River Basins (Alvarez-Berríos and Aide 2015; Balzino et al 2015). In the Medium Tapajós Basin, gold mining started in the 1950s, becoming the main economic activity since then (Rodrigues et al 1994;Bezerra et al 1998), and increasing sediment concentration (SC) in the rivers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling the effects of land cover change on sediment concentrations in a gold-mined Amazonian basin

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Land use/land cover change (LUCC) combined with gold mining activity (GMA) have reportedly affected the water quality of Amazonian rivers by intensifying surface soil erosion and increasing rivers' sediment concentration (SC). However, the role of LUCC on river siltation in comparison to that caused by GMA has not been assessed, and predictions of SC in the rivers accounting for future LUCC are scarce. This study applied a sediment modeling approach on Crepori Basin, located at eastern Amazon Basin, to simulate the impacts of past and future LUCC on SC in the river, comparing their impacts to those caused by GMA. Between 1973 and 2012, the expansion of deforested areas in the region had increased sheet erosion-driven SC in the river, especially during the highwater season, by up to 73.3%. LUCC projections for 2050 suggest future increases in sheet erosion-driven SC during the high-water season by more than three times of that caused by the land cover scenario of 1998-2012. Comparison between SC driven by sheet erosion to that caused by GMA has also shown that during the high-water and the low-water seasons, respectively, only about 14% and 6% of the total SC in the Crepori River resulted from laminar soil erosion, with the remaining proportion resulting from GMA.

show abstract

“…Numerous studies expose that transport of contaminants through the soil depends on the physical-chemical characteristics of the contaminant, site, type of soil, soil heterogeneity, geochemistry of the environment, and moisture content ( Reis et al., 2014 ). Various studies in South America have reported dramatic Hg contamination of ecosystems in the proximities of the sites of artisanal gold mining, where Hg is used to process it ( Roulet and Lucotte, 1995 ; Silva-Filho et al., 2006 ; Grimaldi et al., 2008 ; Balzino et al., 2015 ; Diringer et al., 2015 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water quality of streams associated with artisanal gold mining; Suárez, Department of Cauca, Colombia

Corredor

Pérez

Figueroa

et al. 2021

Heliyon

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Gold mining is one of the major problems of contamination of hydric resources in Colombia, this practice generates a high impact on water quality due to the accumulation of waste during its process. In this study water quality was evaluated in five natural stream beds corresponding to four streams with gold mining operations and one in the Cauca River, taking samples before the water inlet and after the outlet in each operation in the streams of Dios Te Dé, Tamboral, Piedra Imán, and Lorenzo affected by artisanal gold mining labor, which drain into the Salvajina Reservoir on the Cauca River in the municipality of Suárez Cauca, Colombia. Characterization of water bodies in the streams was carried out applying contamination indices of Colombia. The IDEAM protocol was used as guide to monitor the water currents. Samples were taken in 15 stations in the natural stream beds with operations and a sampling station on the Cauca River after the reservoir in these lotic ecosystems, during three periods; two from 2018 and one from 2019. The range of the contamination indices according to the environmental variables were considered. Results show that the contaminants associated with TSS, TUR, and Hg are high in the sampling stations in the output of the operations and the sampling stations of the streams with influence on the operations (T3, T4, I2, I3, D2, and D5). The water quality score according to the ICA IDEAM index varied between acceptable and regular in the different sampling stations. However the Hg concentration in sampling station C1 of the Cauca River is due to contributions from the operations in the amalgamation process. This requires strategic interventions by the communities, miners, operation owners, and control organisms as the Regional Autonomous Corporation of Cauca (CRC) and the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development (MADS) to minimize the negative impacts on the hydric resource and ecosystemic services associated with this resource.

show abstract

Gold losses and mercury recovery in artisanal gold mining on the Madeira River, Brazil

Cited by 41 publications

References 19 publications

Challenges and opportunities for managing aquatic mercury pollution in altered landscapes

Challenges and opportunities for managing aquatic mercury pollution in altered landscapes

Modeling the effects of land cover change on sediment concentrations in a gold-mined Amazonian basin

Water quality of streams associated with artisanal gold mining; Suárez, Department of Cauca, Colombia

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About