Mercury Contamination In Prey Meas Goldmine 2006

by Peter Williams
in Technical Info
on January 22, 2014

Mercury is used to extract gold in simple artisanal gold mines in Ratanakirri province, NE Cambodia. Before this project, the gold amalgam was heated with an open flame to volatilize mercury and recover gold. The process resulted in release of mercury and associated contamination. In this set of analyses from 2006 the miners hair contained up to 42000 ng/g of mercury. Fifty kilometers downstream large predator fish contained as much as 400 ng/g of mercury. Retorts were introduced to recycle mercury. Water in the miner’s well was contaminated with bacteria. Ceramic water filters were introduced to treat the well water and alleviate their diarrhea.