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Judi Lynn

(160,219 posts)
Fri Nov 27, 2020, 09:55 PM Nov 2020

Mine ponds increase risk of mercury exposure for indigenous communities and wildlife



Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Nov 27 2020

The proliferation of pits and ponds created in recent years by miners digging for small deposits of alluvial gold in Peru's Amazon has dramatically altered the landscape and increased the risk of mercury exposure for indigenous communities and wildlife, a new study shows.

In heavily mined watersheds, there's been a 670% increase in the extent of ponds across the landscape since 1985. These ponds are almost entirely artificial lakes created as thousands of former mining pits fill in with rainwater and groundwater over time."

Simon Topp, doctoral student in geological sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Landscapes formerly dominated by forests are now increasingly dotted by these small lakes, which, the study finds, provide low-oxygen conditions in which submerged mercury - a toxic leftover from the gold mining process - can be converted by microbial activity into an even more toxic form of the element, called methylmercury, at net rates 5-to-7 times greater than in rivers.

"Methylmercury poses especially high risks for humans and large predators because it bioaccumulates in body tissue as it moves up the food chain. That's particularly concerning given the high biodiversity and the large number of indigenous populations that live in the Peruvian Amazon," said Jacqueline Gerson, a doctoral student in ecology at Duke University, who also co-led the study.

More:
https://www.news-medical.net/news/20201127/Mine-ponds-increase-risk-of-mercury-exposure-for-indigenous-communities-and-wildlife.asp

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The Other Man-Made Disaster Ravaging the Amazon

Peru’s aggressive campaign to eradicate illegal gold mining in the Amazon has yielded mixed results.
By Leo Schwartz

AUGUST 29, 2019



La Pampa, an illegal gold mining hub in the Peruvian Amazon, in 2014. (AP Photo / Rodrigo Abd, File)

Madre de Dios, Peru—For a fourth consecutive week, global attention has fixed on the fires ravaging the Brazilian Amazon. In neighboring Peru, though, it’s the government—not ranchers or loggers—setting the blazes, and the fires here are part of a massive effort to save the rain forest. For the last seven months, the Peruvian military and police have used gasoline-fueled burns and dynamite to drive out illegal gold mining.

At the heart of this destruction is La Pampa—a barren, contaminated plain stretching for 100 square kilometers next to one of Peru’s natural reserves. The site has been a gold mining hub since 2007, when miners set up the first camps. Soon, they became a series of gold-rush towns, plagued by human trafficking, child labor, and hired hit men. Until last February, 25,000 illegal gold miners occupied the area.

The search for gold can turn habitats into wastelands. Gold seekers cut down trees, dig out the underlying soil, and use high-powered hoses to blast the alluvial-rich earth. The remaining sediment is mixed with mercury—which binds with gold—and then torched, leaving pure gold and mercury waste, which forms toxic fumes and pollutes the land for generations.

Over the years, environmental groups and indigenous populations have raised alarms, but governmental attempts to curb mining have largely failed. In 2012, Peru declared mining in buffer zones or protected areas illegal, and in 2016, then-President Ollanta Humala launched a short-lived state of emergency. Yet mining continued to grow—in the past year, La Pampa expanded 4,164 acres, the equivalent of about 3,500 American football fields.

More:
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/peru-la-pampa-illegal-gold-mining/
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Mine ponds increase risk of mercury exposure for indigenous communities and wildlife (Original Post) Judi Lynn Nov 2020 OP
Mine ponds amplify mercury risks in Peru's Amazon Judi Lynn Nov 2020 #1
Heartbreaking & tragic. nr Duppers Nov 2020 #2
Keeping gold as a store of "wealth" leads to environmental destruction such as this. hunter Nov 2020 #3

Judi Lynn

(160,219 posts)
1. Mine ponds amplify mercury risks in Peru's Amazon
Fri Nov 27, 2020, 10:00 PM
Nov 2020

NOVEMBER 27, 2020

by Duke University School of Nursing



Thousands of artificial ponds like this one, created when rainwater filled in an abandoned gold mining pit, are amplifying risks of mercury exposure for humans and wildlife in the Peruvian Amazon. Credit: Melissa Marchese

The proliferation of pits and ponds created in recent years by miners digging for small deposits of alluvial gold in Peru's Amazon has dramatically altered the landscape and increased the risk of mercury exposure for indigenous communities and wildlife, a new study shows.

"In heavily mined watersheds, there's been a 670% increase in the extent of ponds across the landscape since 1985. These ponds are almost entirely artificial lakes created as thousands of former mining pits fill in with rainwater and groundwater over time," said Simon Topp, a doctoral student in geological sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who co-led the study.

Landscapes formerly dominated by forests are now increasingly dotted by these small lakes, which, the study finds, provide low-oxygen conditions in which submerged mercury—a toxic leftover from the gold mining process—can be converted by microbial activity into an even more toxic form of the element, called methylmercury, at net rates 5-to-7 times greater than in rivers.

"Methylmercury poses especially high risks for humans and large predators because it bioaccumulates in body tissue as it moves up the food chain. That's particularly concerning given the high biodiversity and the large number of indigenous populations that live in the Peruvian Amazon," said Jacqueline Gerson, a doctoral student in ecology at Duke University, who also co-led the study.

More:
https://phys.org/news/2020-11-ponds-amplify-mercury-peru-amazon.html

hunter

(38,264 posts)
3. Keeping gold as a store of "wealth" leads to environmental destruction such as this.
Sun Nov 29, 2020, 11:50 AM
Nov 2020

More than enough gold has already been mined for any practical purposes but it's hoarded uselessly by cultists who believe gold is money because their gods said so or something.

Investing in gold or gold mines is unethical.

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