The Extractive Industries and Society 7 (2020) 1135–1146

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

The Extractive Industries and Society

Review article

A review of the failed attempts to curb mercury use at artisanal gold mines T
and a proposed solution
⁎
Marcello M. Veiga , Omotayo Fadina
University of British Columbia, Norman B. Keevil Institute of Mining Engineering, Vancouver, BC, Canada

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Governments, international agencies, NGOs, and academics focus their projects’ objectives on monitoring
Artisanal Mining mercury pollution in Artisanal Gold Mining (AGM). Rarely do these monitoring projects propose solutions to
Gold mercury eliminate the use of mercury in AGM. Rather, they focus on the assessment of associated health or environmental
Co-existence impacts, demonstrations of cleaner techniques to extract gold and legal actions to formalize artisanal miners.
Solutions
Those approaches have not resulted in mercury reduction or elimination. This paper is an overview of the
observations made by the first author in over 40 years of intensive research and field projects across 35 coun-
tries. To date, projects to eliminate mercury in gold processing have been predominantly unsuccessful mainly
due to the lack of continuity and misplaced objectives. This paper reviews the attempts to eliminate mercury use
in AGM. The co-existence of artisanal miners with the owners of the mineral titles (e.g. conventional mining
companies) is successfully gaining momentum and has been witnessed in the field. Although different co-ex-
istence models are discussed in this review, we suggest a minor modification of the technique to improve the
relationship between the miners and ore-processing companies. Essentially, our proposed co-existence model
implies that the miners mine while the processors process.

1. Introduction: forty years of mercury pollution from artisanal Pelada in the Brazilian Amazon. Five years later, more than 2000 AGM
miners sites involving 1 million artisanal miners were discovered in the region
(Veiga and Meech, 1995; Veiga et al., 1995; Malm, 1998). The bioac-
Artisanal mining has long been portrayed as a relevant source of cumulation of mercury from AGM activities made newspaper headlines
many environmental and social problems in developing countries. Over in 1982 when Dr. Jacques Cousteau visited Serra Pelada, where 80,000
40 million people are directly involved in this activity and the number artisanal gold miners were operating. The French researcher alerted
has increased dramatically over the past decade (IGF, 2017), with ar- Brazilian authorities to the danger of mercury being dumped into the
tisanal gold miners (AGM)1 representing half of this contingent of mi- aquatic environment (Cleary, 1990). By the end of the 1980s, Serra
ners. Gold production is estimated by Seccatore et al. 2014 to be be- Pelada was organized by the Brazilian Army and had produced about
tween 380 and 450 tonnes/a in more than 70 countries, where a large 90 tonnes of gold (Veiga et al., 2002). It was not clear how much
majority of miners use amalgamation as the main process of gold ex- mercury was used; probably around 300 tonnes, but it attracted the
traction. In recent times, AGM is considered as the main source of attention of many researchers and politicians.
global mercury pollution with over 2000 tonnes/a of mercury lost to The 1980s and 1990s were characterized by an increasing number
the environment (UNEP, 2020a). Concomitant issues related to AGM of news media and scientific papers focusing on environmental mon-
include water pollution, tropical and sexually-transmitted diseases, itoring of the metallic mercury used in AGM and the methylmercury
deforestation, conflicts with companies or other owners of the mineral analyzed in the aquatic biota, with a large number of them originating
titles, drugs, gambling, prostitution, invasions, money laundry, tax from studies in the Brazilian Amazon (Mallas and Benedicto, 1986;
evasion, high prices of goods in a town, etc., and make mercury pol- Martinelli et al., 1988; Pfeiffer and Lacerda, 1988; Pfeiffer et al., 1989;
lution a tip of an iceberg of problems. Hacon, 1990; Lacerda et al., 1990; Malm et al., 1990; Farid et al., 1991;
In 1980, the increase in gold price triggered a gold rush to Serra Veiga and Fernandes, 1991; Pfeiffer et al., 1991; Boischio, 1992;

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: veiga@mining.ubc.ca (M.M. Veiga).
1
The term “artisanal gold mining” (AGM) is herein preferred to designate micro, small, medium, large gold miners who use rudimentary techniques to mine and
process ores.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2020.06.023
Received 3 April 2020; Received in revised form 28 June 2020; Accepted 28 June 2020
Available online 21 July 2020
2214-790X/ © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
M.M. Veiga and O. Fadina The Extractive Industries and Society 7 (2020) 1135–1146

Lacerda and Salomons, 1992; Akagi et al., 1995; Barbosa et al., 1995; some individual miners retain the rudimentary practice of con-
Palheta and Taylor, 1995; Guimarães et al., 1995; Hacon et al., 1997; centrating and amalgamating the gold ores, the majority of these op-
Lacerda, 1997; Bidone et al., 1997). Consequently, the environmental erations, in many countries, are conducted in processing centers.
impacts of mercury pollution from old gold rushes in North America In 1989, the Zimbabwean government established a processing
made it to the spotlight of scientific journals (Wayne et al., 1996; center where the miners brought their ores for processing by specialized
Bonzongo et al., 1996; Lechler et al., 1997; Wong et al., 1999; operators (Hilson, 2006). This reduced the miners’ work and costs since
Gray et al., 2000). The experience of the Slovenian researchers dealing they do not need to invest in equipment and personnel for processing.
with tailings from the 500-year-old Idrija mercury mine was critical to The center, that operated until 2003, was supposed to concentrate gold
assist researchers working with mercury pollution from AGM. Analy- ore and amalgamate only a small mass, thereby reducing the use and
tical methods improved, as did our understanding of how bioaccumu- consequent mercury losses. This model had its merits and
lation occurs (Horvat et al., 1999; Covelli et al., 1999). The participa- Hinton et al. (2003) highlighted additional advantages of the proces-
tion of the Japanese National Institute of Minamata Disease, in sing centers that could be used as training hubs to the miners. The idea
particular, the strong assistance of Dr. Akagi, was also crucial for de- of processing centers to provide the miners with ore processing and/or
veloping reliable, analytical procedures in the Amazon labs as well as in amalgamation proliferated globally but the owners of these centers
other areas impacted by gold mining in Asia, South America and Africa were aware of the limitations of gold extraction with mercury. Knowing
(Akagi and Nishimura, 1991; Akagi et al., 1995; Ikingura and that mercury only extracts the free gold (not attached to other minerals)
Akagi, 1996; Kehrig et al., 1997). Very few papers were published leaving the unliberated as well as the very fine gold particles in the
about AGM in other developing countries. tailings (Wenqian and Poling, 1983; Veiga et al., 2014b), these centers
Also, in the 1990s, but more evident in the 2000s, scientists re- convinced the miners that gold concentration processes were inefficient
vealed other sources of mercury polluting the Amazon fish, such as and time-consuming in order to retain rich tailings for further proces-
forest fires (Veiga et al., 1994; Artaxo et al., 2000; Cordeiro et al., 2002; sing. A majority of the centers adopted inefficient methods of grinding
Michelazzo et al., 2010) and erosion of river banks (Roulet et al., 2000). and whole ore amalgamation in small ball mills or copper plates cov-
The process in which mercury from all sources is methylated was not ered with mercury. About 70 to 80% of the precious metals are lost to
well understood. The role of organic matter reacting with oxidized the tailings and left in the centers as a “form of payment” for the ser-
mercury (natural or from AGM) was investigated as a step towards vices. These centers extract the residual gold (which is the majority)
methylation of mercury (Tromans et al., 1996; Meech et al., 1998; from the mercury-contaminated tailings with cyanide, which is a more
Fadini and Jardim, 2001; Barbosa et al., 2003; Bisinoti et al., 2007; efficient gold lixiviant. However, the cyanide also dissolves residual
Hinton and Veiga, 2008; Jardim et al., 2010). mercury in the tailings forming Hg(CN)2 in the waste solution that is
The dissemination of news in scientific journals about the problem discharged into local drainages (Veiga et al., 2006; Garcia et al., 2015).
of mercury in AGM in Africa increased in the 2000s and had large This mercury complex is a more potent contaminant to the aquatic
promotion thanks to the work of Prof. G. Hilson in Ghana biota than metallic mercury (Drace et al., 2016). Studies using rats at
(Hilson, 2002a,b,c; Hilson, 2006; Hilson and Parsie, 2006; Hilson et al., the Mercer University (still unpublished) and at the Federal University
2007) and others (Bonzongo et al., 2003; Aryee et al., 2003; of Rio de Janeiro with fish (Marshall et al., 2020) reached similar
Yakovleva, 2007; Tschakert and Singha, 2007). Authors also started conclusions that mercury-cyanide complexes are highly toxic and ac-
revealing the problems with AGM in other African countries, such as cumulate preferentially in the animals’ kidneys.
South Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe (van Straaten, 2000; Any solution to eliminate amalgamation must compete with the
Mutemeri and Petersen, 2002; Maponga and Ngorima, 2003; status quo of the processing centers. Miners understand that they receive
Taylor et al., 2005; Ikingura et al., 2006; Spiegel, 2009). Additional a portion (usually < 30%, but in some cases can be up to 50%) of the
studies of mercury in AGM in Asia and other Latin American countries gold they mined and much more stays in the tailings, however, they do
also came to the attention of the scientific community. Likewise in the not have the required skills and money to buy equipment or to pay
Brazilian Amazon, a strong focus on environmental and health mon- operating costs such as labor, energy, reagents, facility rental, etc. By
itoring programs was evident (Appleton et al., 1999; Appleton et al., amalgamating the whole ore, miners recover gold within 8 h at relative
2001; Wasserman et al., 2001; Boese-O'Reilly et al., 2003; Olivero- low cost. Therefore, any recommended alternative to whole ore amal-
Verbel et al., 2004; Webb et al., 2004; Gunson and Veiga, 2004; gamation must be more profitable for miners than what the processing
Limbong et al., 2003; Limbong et al., 2005; Castilhos et al., 2006; centers offer.
Hurtado et al., 2006; Marrugo-Negrete et al., 2008, Passos and Mergler,
2008). 3. The challenges of solution implementation
In the 2010s, a substantial increase in studies of mercury in AGM
was observed but with an increased focus on social and health impacts The scientific community has made considerable efforts in revealing
as well as on policies for the miners’ formalization (Siegel and mercury sources as well as environmental, social and health impacts of
Veiga, 2009; Siegel and Veiga, 2010; Schmidt, 2012; Guiza, 2013; mercury pollution by AGM. However, solving the challenge of mercury
Guiza and Aristizábal, 2013; Bernaudat and Keane, 2013; Gibb and pollution has received minimal attention from the academics, govern-
O'Leary, 2014; Sippl, 2015; Niane et al., 2015; Marshall and ments, NGOs and conventional mining industry. The demonstration of
Veiga, 2017; Aristizábal et al., 2017; Rochlin, 2018; Hilson et al., 2018; “new” technologies to reduce and eliminate mercury emissions and
Veiga and Marshall, 2019; Byemba, 2020). Not many solutions to releases have been insufficient to convince miners to adopt cleaner
eliminate mercury from AGM have been incorporated into projects practices, mainly because miners are profit-driven and less perturbed
sponsored by international agencies as the main focus was to reveal the about environmental and health consequences. The most difficult so-
sources of mercury pollution and its impacts. lutions to implement are those requiring a change in the behavior of the
miners. Projects rarely consider this and infrequently researchers in-
2. The main source of mercury pollution in AGM quire about the miners´ needs, motivations to change and skills to adopt
cleaner practices (Stocklin-Weinberg et al., 2019).
The high levels of mercury pollution in developing countries are the So far, efforts to reduce/eliminate mercury in AGM can be grouped
result of undue thermal decomposition of amalgams in open pans, and into one of three broad categories:
from the whole ore amalgamation of the whole ore in small ball mills.
The latter releases at least 3 times more mercury to the environment 1 Environmental and Health Approaches;
than the evaporation of mercury from amalgams with a torch. Although 2 Technological (educational) Approaches;

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3 Formalization or Legal Approaches. indicates that a person burning amalgam and neighbors are intoxicated
with mercury, treatment must be suggested (Boese-O'Reilly et al., 2003;
3.1. Environmental and health approaches Drasch et al., 2007) and preventive measures must also be re-
commended. Unfortunately, most local doctors do not know what to do
Monitoring the levels of mercury in the environment and humans and foreign researchers do not return to assist the impacted commu-
has been the preferred approach of academics and NGOs in an attempt nities. In Colombia, the authorities provide diuretic for those with high
to call attention of authorities and international agencies on the se- levels of mercury in the urine. After the levels are reduced, usually
verity of pollution in AGM sites. In the Amazon, where fish is an es- within a month, miners and gold shop employees return to the same
sential source of protein for the dwellers, the presence of methylmer- polluting activities, as they believe they are healed. What they do not
cury created a large discussion among scientists whether the risks realize is that mercury in urine does not always correlate with neuro-
outweigh the benefits of fish consumption (Boischio and Henshel, 2000; logical symptom, as signs of intoxication can occur with more time of
Dorea and Barbosa, 2000; Dorea, 2003; Dorea et al., 2005; exposure (Veiga and Baker, 2004).
Guimarães and Mergler, 2012). Although the analyses of aquatic biota A common aspect of the mercury pollution by AGM is the sensa-
are essential in advising local communities about the risks of fish tionalistic news in newspapers and Internet reporting data from en-
overconsumption when methylation is confirmed, most monitoring vironmental and health projects. Mercury pollution has received ex-
campaigns were not designed with this aim, rather with outright aca- traordinary attention from the media, but the information is rarely
demic purposes. As a result, the outcome of many projects has never brought to the public with quality and integrity. Persistently, the
reached miners, community members or indigenous peoples that are Indonesian Press publishes a large amount of articles reporting mercury
impacted by mercury poisoning. While the vast bibliography on mer- pollution from AGM with a clear intention to cause panic. For example,
cury pollution from AGM focuses on biota analyses, the assessment of Paddock (2016) has been systematically publicizing that mercury from
mercury vapor in urban areas from gold shops (Moody et al., 2020), or Indonesian AGM is causing birth defects in children: “more than a mil-
processing centers has received little attention (Garcia et al., 2015) lion small-scale miners in this island nation are poisoned, which is leaving
despite its much higher relevance in the poisoning of mining towns’ children with crippling birth defects”. Without any scientific evidence, the
inhabitants than fish consumption. reporter affirmed that mercury is causing brain damage in newborn
Moreno-Brush et al. (2020), in an excellent review of the fate of children (Paddock, 2019). Also in Indonesia, Gunawan (2019) followed
mercury from AGM, highlighted that the different hydrology, season- this trend in reporting “fatal birth defects” caused by mercury just to
ality, sources of Hg and site-specific nature of the tropical environments have the attention of the readers. These attitudes are also followed by
where AGM takes place, makes difficult the interpretation of the geo- some scientists that correlate, without certainty, one or two cases of
chemical cycle of mercury without a standardized protocol. These au- birth defects with mercury intoxication of the mothers (metallic and
thors also pointed out the increasing number of studies using mercury methylmercury): “photo of baby and children with birth defects in gold
isotopic analysis to determine the pollution source (natural or anthro- mining communities in Indonesia” (Bell, 2017). Miners do not believe in
pogenic). In a project sponsored by UNIDO, the isotopic analysis con- news and do not read scientific reports either. Bell (2017) mentioned
cluded that the high levels of mercury recorded in Peruvian sediments that “mercury biomonitoring is an essential element of any effective strategy
were from tailings of processing centers dumped into the same Ecua- to assess and reduce global mercury pollution”. This is not quite true. The
dorian river located 160 km upstream (Marshall et al., 2018; exaggerated number of environmental and health monitoring projects
Schudel et al., 2019). It was observed that the mercury pollution origin and news in the Press published in the last 40 years has not convinced
had not only academic importance to assess mercury mobility, but also miners to change their polluting behavior. Authorities, with no funds,
a strong political connotation. Isotopic analysis has also been used for have limited capacity to enforce the laws in the field based on en-
mercury speciation in hair and urine (Sherman et al., 2015) as well as in vironmental and health monitoring results. Therefore, it is not efficient
fish (Laffont et al., 2009; Lepak et al., 2018). to spend millions of dollars to prove the environmental contamination
The authorities usually ask academic researchers to provide more of a site or intoxication of human beings to suggest solutions to stop the
scientific proof that the miners are suffering from mercury con- use of mercury.
tamination. Nobody needs to analyze the urine of a miner burning
amalgams and breathing mercury to show that he/she is contaminated 3.2. Technological approaches
with mercury. Furthermore, it is evident that neighbors are also re-
cipients of mercury emissions from this poor practice. However, in- The idea of this approach is to demonstrate and train artisanal mi-
toxication when detected, is an “evolution” of the contamination, and ners on different methods to extract gold from the ore without mercury.
neurological tests are essential for the diagnosis (Drasch et al., 2002). Recently, this has been the approach of several projects conducted by
The chronic impacts of mercury vapor on miners and their communities NGOs and international agencies. In the 1990s, the main idea for in-
have been well documented and drastic situations publicized tervention projects was to reduce mercury use by concentrating gold
(Steckling et al., 2014, 2017). Unfortunately, miners do not change and using equipment to condense and recover mercury vapor (retort).
their practices when presented with evidences of mercury intoxication, All types of retorts to protect the amalgam burners and neighbors from
while authorities in most cases do nothing to enforce the laws. Miners mercury vapor exposure were introduced to the miners. (Veiga, 2006;
usually argue that they have never witnessed anyone dying from mer- Vieira, 2006). Despite the efforts to reduce occupational exposure,
cury intoxication. Once a miner said when burning an amalgam in an when the trainers were not present or when miners faced difficulty,
open pan: “I am more afraid of lead than mercury…lead from the bandit they returned to burning amalgams in open shovels (Jønsson et al.,
bullets, I have to burn this fast”. Another miner, when participating in a 2009) or to amalgamate the whole ore. A permanent training system,
health-monitoring project, has commented: “it seems that more people usually costly, is needed for a sustainable change of behavior.
are living from mercury than dying from mercury”. When miners sell the gold in a town, the gold shops melt the re-
Health monitoring has been frequently used to assess the levels of torted gold (doré) with borax to get rid of impurities and evaporate the
mercury in miners and community members. Remedios, an AGM town 2–5% mercury which is usually associated with the doré. In this process,
in Colombia, has a record of the highest incidence of kidney transplants neighbors of the shop are highly contaminated with mercury. The
in the country, but the local health professionals cannot relate this to USEPA – United States Environmental Protection Agency (2020) con-
the levels of mercury in the atmosphere. Despite the evidence of mer- centrated efforts on reducing mercury vapor emitted from gold shops by
cury contamination based on air and urine analyses (Garcia et al., developing and installing dry fume hoods with filters in the Brazilian
2015), miners and their communities dismiss these data. Once it and Peruvian Amazon. The GEF/UNDP/UNIDO Global Mercury Project

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also introduced simple fume hoods for Indonesian gold shops using alkaline pH. In the long term, cyanide is less dangerous than mercury
Tupperware and PVC ducts to condense mercury vapor in water. These because the main toxic forms of cyanide can be decomposed naturally
US$ 35 fume hoods capture over 90% of the mercury emitted by the or with oxidizing reagents. Instead of using amalgamation in small ball
shops (Telmer and Stapper, 2007; Telmer, 2008). These measures were mills, miners can use cyanidation in these same mills to recover more
effective in reducing pollution around the gold shops, usually located in than 90% of the gold from concentrates (Veiga et al., 2009; Sousa et al.,
urban areas. 2010). Other lixiviants have been tested and are used in a few con-
In the last 40 years, few publications have described or suggested ventional small plants. Iodide-iodine is being used by the company
processing methods to recover gold and reduce or eliminate mercury EnviroLeach Technologies (2020) with high efficiency to leach gold in a
losses (Priester et al., 1993; Veiga and Meech, 1995; Hentschel et al., short time from concentrates and e-wastes. The method is cheaper than
2002; Veiga et al., 2006; Sousa et al., 2010; Veiga et al., 2014b; cyanidation since the reagent is recyclable. The use of cyanogenic
Veiga and Correa, 2019). The GEF/UNDP/UNIDO Global Mercury plants and other organic compounds is also an interesting solution for
Project (2002–2007) was a ground-breaking project in which 30,000 leaching gold from concentrates. How can these techniques be adopted
artisanal miners and community members in six countries (Brazil, In- by artisanal miners? This implies a steep learning curve and changes in
donesia, Laos, Sudan, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe) received training on the miners’ business system, as the gold extraction processes are neither
health and environmental impacts of mercury as well as on how to trivial nor inexpensive.
avoid occupational exposure or even stop the use of mercury by con- Most interventions to eliminate mercury are conducted by in-
centrating gold (McDaniels et al., 2010). At the end of six years of this dividuals with little understanding of mineral processing. Supposedly,
multimillion dollar UN project, not many miners continued with the several “innovations” are reinventing the wheel, as such, repeating the
methods they had learned. Shandro et al. (2009) made a similar ob- same mistakes as previous projects. It is not infrequent to see that some
servation when they visited the same artisanal miners in Mozambique interventionists believe that all gold ores are the same everywhere and
who had received training four years earlier on how to reduce and one technique fits all. This is the case, for example of a well-promoted
recycle mercury with retorts. The same story occurred with the UNIDO idea to eliminate mercury in AGM using the Borax Method (Appel and
Colombia Mercury Project, but the most effective changes were ob- Na-Oy, 2011). The borax (Na2B4O7.10H2O) has been used by conven-
served when the Army removed mercury polluters from the urban core tional and artisanal miners since the Egyptian times as a flux to melt
of the mining towns (Garcia et al., 2015). Without permanent en- gold. In the suggested process, miners must concentrate gold by gravity
forcement, some of the polluters returned to the towns. methods to a very high grade before melting it. Mineral processors
Because the main cause for mercury losses is whole ore amalga- know that “the more you concentrate, the more gold you lose”. In other
mation, then gold concentration can reduce the mass of material to be words, a very yellow concentrate usually means that the gold grade is
amalgamated or leached to less than 10% of the original mass. very high but the gold recovery is poor. Of course, there are exceptions,
International projects have brought different gravity concentration for example, when the gold particles are relatively coarse and fully
methods to be tested in the field by miners, hoping they will learn how liberated in an alluvial ore, but this is not always the case (Veiga et al.,
to operate and buy (or build) their equipment (Veiga et al., 2006; 2014b). If a gravity concentrate is not very rich in gold, the slag formed
UNEP, 2012; Veiga and Correa, 2019). Simple techniques to con- with silicates, oxides, and borax will carry most of the gold. Is it pos-
centrate gold were also demonstrated in Colombia by a project spon- sible to convince artisanal miners to use a process that will result in the
sored by the Colleges and Institutes Canada (CICAN) and led by the loss of 90% of the gold in the gravity concentration tailings in order to
Collége d'Enseignement Général et Professionnel (CEGEP) group from have a very rich yellow product to melt with borax? Will this persuade
l'Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Rouyn- Noranda, Québec. This outstanding the miners to stop using mercury?
project developed a series of homemade concentrators that are useful Esdaile and Chalker (2018) have mentioned that “the chemistry
for micro-miners, those processing less than 2 tonnes of ore per day community can provide important technological advances that may help
(Veiga et al., 2018). Because micro-miners work for subsistence, are overcome some aspects of the mercury problem in artisanal and small-scale
widely dispersed and often operate as seasonal miners, the difficulty in gold mining”. Despite the noble intentions of the authors, solutions to
implementing this solution is understandable. However, if processing reduce or eliminate mercury in AGM are not often in the agenda of most
centers are the main mercury polluters, the question is: “why do most projects or, when they are, unsustainable techniques are usually im-
projects focus on micro-miners?” The answer is: “they are more numerous plemented. Zolnikov and Ramirez-Ortiz (2018) offered an excellent
than the small, medium and large artisanal miners and more receptive to any review of the hurdles to eliminate mercury in AGM stressing the lack of
idea to help them”. They also enjoy the training time with food, soda, sustainability of the intervention projects associated with no local
good conversation, and sometimes payment for their time in the technical support and lack of governments’ interest in the continuity of
classroom. The owners of the processing centers do not want to change the implemented measures.
their exploitative business model and, in many cases, they have strong The technological-educational approach has its merits and should
connections with local or national authorities. It is interesting to note be pursued, but the interventions must be carefully studied and planned
that most processing centers have legal permits to operate (and pollute) with miners or processing centers, and not only with the project
but not their clients, the miners. sponsors. Technology is not a panacea to eliminate amalgamation but in
Without a process to liberate gold from other minerals as well as the short term, can help reduce mercury pollution. The large majority of
recover the fine gold particles, miners will keep using the inefficient the interventions, focused on bringing mercury-free techniques to mi-
amalgamation process, even to extract gold from the gravity con- ners, have not fulfilled their objectives. Training centers, as a perma-
centrates. Although the coarse gold can be separated in a gravity con- nent source of technical support for artisanal miners, have been sug-
centration circuit, using, for example, centrifuges + shaking table and gested to many authorities in developing countries but, unfortunately,
then melted with borax, this is insufficient to obtain high gold recovery. governments prefer to enforce formalization of the miners instead of
The fine gold, not concentrated by gravity methods, must be recovered organizing and educating them, which is usually a more expensive
by flotation followed by cyanidation or direct cyanidation of the gravity measure and demands specialized trainers (Veiga et al., 2014b;
concentration tailings. This is a classic flowsheet used by more than Veiga et al., 2015).
2000 conventional mining operations worldwide and, with adaptation,
it is also valid for AGM. 3.3. Formalization or legal approaches
Cyanidation is the most used method to extract the fine gold par-
ticles from concentrates or whole ore but it is more difficult to be used Formalization or legal approaches focus on bringing regulations to
by artisanal miners and it can be very harmful if not operated in the artisanal miners to formalize, i.e. to legalize their activities and

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work with adequate techniques to improve gold recovery and reduce of Colombia and implemented in July 2018 which prohibits the use of
environmental and health impacts. Governments usually ignore this mercury in AGM. In a recent field trip to artisanal mining sites, miners
second attribute of the formalization process. In 1995, the World Bank were observed using mercury, without worry, in the presence of police
stressed that “none of the problems related to artisanal mining could be officers.
effectively tackled until a prime need was met: legal titles” (Barry, 1996). In another approach to hinder mercury use in AGM, the UNEP or-
This is a proven fiasco with less than 1% of artisanal miners formalized ganized the Minamata Convention to control and even stop mercury
in South America (Marshall and Veiga, 2017; Stocklin-Weinberg et al., trading between countries, in particular to AGM. The Convention also
2019). The obsession of governments for making AGM legal and paying encouraged researchers and authorities to promote the adoption of
taxes has been creating more illegality. Mercury has been smuggled techniques to reduce the use of mercury in AGM, highlighting, in par-
from one country to another, the price has increased and the mid- ticular the problem of the whole ore amalgamation (Konkel, 2019).
dlemen, who sell mercury at high prices and buy gold at cheaper rates, With 128 signatory countries and 116 ratifications, the Convention
are the main beneficiaries of this solution (Thomas et al., 2019). came into force on Aug. 16, 2017 (UNEP, 2020b). In 2018, more than
Without adequate structure and the required education, formalization 32 countries were exporting metallic mercury to developing countries
is inept and does not eliminate the mercury problem. Hilson and according to data from UN COMTRADE (2019), an international UN
Vieira (2007) clearly outlined the incapacity of the governments to deal database that reports goods officially exported and imported by coun-
with the problem: “for governments to tackle the mercury problem effec- tries. Most of these countries signed and ratified the UNEP agreement.
tively, the relevant regulatory units must be equipped with adequate re- Official exporters of mercury were: Mexico (230 tonnes) followed by
sources”. Unfortunately, most of the mining and environmental autho- United Arab Emirates (124 tonnes), Russia (105 tonnes) and Canada
rities neither have the appropriate knowledge about mercury impacts (91 tonnes). In contrast, Bolivia, also a ratified signatory of the Con-
nor have been exposed to the same in artisanal mining sites. To date, vention, before 2013, was importing less than 8 tonnes/a of mercury.
the formalization of artisanal miners is on the agendas of international After the Convention, when neighboring countries implemented laws
agencies, such as the World Bank, UNEP, UNIDO, UNDP, USAID, USDA, prohibiting the use of mercury in AGM, Bolivia imported 143 tonnes of
Global Affairs Canada, etc. Nonetheless, minimal success has been mercury in 2015, 224 tonnes in 2016, 180 tonnes in 2017 and over 196
achieved (Marshall and Veiga, 2017). This is attributed to a large bu- tonnes in 2018. At the same time Colombia, which was importing 133
reaucratic process and a disconnected view of the meaning of for- tonnes of mercury in 2015, reported only 2 tonnes in 2018. It is evident
malization for governments and miners. that mercury is being “exported” to Colombia from Bolivia.
The regulatory framework established by governments of devel- The formalization or legal approaches have minimal effect on the
oping countries for formalization assumes that miners are “educated field and governments in developing countries do not have resources to
businessmen” (Hilson and Maconachie, 2017). Hilson et al. (2017) re- enforce the laws, have limited capacity to sensitize miners and create an
inforced the viewpoint that legislation established by “governments intricate bureaucratic system that artisanal miners cannot follow
across sub-Saharan Africa are creating bureaucracies which are stifling the (Maconachie and Hilson, 2011; Hilson et al., 2018). The “bias” of
formalization of artisanal mining activities in the region”. According to governments and financial institutions towards conventional mining
Hilson et al. (2018) the policies developed by African governments are companies (Hilson, 2019) is a bitter reality since little attention has
disconnected from the type of business employed by artisanal miners, been given by authorities to assist the impoverished miners who dis-
which is basically driven by necessity. The authors expressed that it is covered most of the gold deposits. Pragmatically speaking, it is difficult
not technical innovation, as highlighted by governments, that will to change the current policies in developing countries to create me-
change the sector, but an adequate policy. This is quite true, as it is chanisms to simplify access to mineral titles for artisanal miners
observed that governments, with few exceptions, apply the same reg- (Hilson et al., 2019).
ulations used for the large conventional mining companies to small In addition, governments know that the main gold deposits dis-
miners. In this case, there is no incentives for an artisanal miner to covered by the artisanal miners became mineral titles of conventional
become a responsible-formal-sophisticated-small miner. If the main mining companies that have more organizational capacity to deal with
concern of governments to formalize AGM sector is tax evasion, there is the complex legal system. It is also common to see individuals with the
no need to establish regulations with complex classifications and no- mineral titles (exploration or exploitation) of deposits discovered by
menclatures of the type of artisanal miner. Basically, the miners pro- AGM. They have the sole intention to negotiate areas with large com-
ducing less gold, pay less taxes, and those producing more, pay more. panies. These speculators usually do not conduct any geological ex-
The bureaucracy for formalization follows the same trend (Marshall and ploration or mining activity and blame artisanal miners for invading
Veiga, 2017). their claim.
Millions of dollars have been invested to formalize small groups of
individuals who likely already had their mineral titles, but not all 4. A sustainable solution
permits. Formalization of those who discovered the gold deposits but do
not have mineral titles is a very hard and, in some countries, almost an After analyzing the failures of most projects in reducing and elim-
impossible process. In a recent study, Smits et al. (2020) identified the inating mercury in AGM, the authors describe a solution that has been
need for improved dialog between artisanal miners in Peru and reg- observed in the field and with a large impact to reduce mercury usage.
ulatory bodies as a way to achieve the desired formalization. Un- Without changing the legal status quo of mining activities in most de-
fortunately these dialogues are rarely observed. In Colombia, according veloping countries, it seems that the solution to eliminate mercury
to a member of the USAID Oro Legal Project, there are 380 steps for an pollution in AGM is much more in the hands of the owners of the mi-
artisanal miner to become formal. As the former Brazilian senator Ro- neral titles of the gold deposits than with governments or international
berto Campos once said: “governments’ bureaucracy is like Lavoisier's agencies. In this case, a co-existence system in which artisanal miners
Law, it is not destroyed, it only changes the form”. Have developing can work in the mining concessions from companies or other owners of
countries’ governments effectively reduced mercury establishing ela- the mineral titles seems to be a feasible solution and successful ex-
borated regulations? amples are now happening in Latin America.
After the visit of the first author to a large number of formalized The concept of co-existence of artisanal miners with conventional
small-scale gold processing plants in Colombia, it was observed that a mining companies in the same concession is not new and it has been
large majority of them misuse mercury and create the same pollution as defended and opposing for some authors (Yakovleva and Vazquez-
informal miners or processing centers (Veiga and Marshall, 2019). This Brust, 2018; Hilson et al., 2020). The differences among the types of co-
activity is in violation to the Law 1658 established by the government existence observed in the field are commented as follows and a small

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improvement is suggested. inventory of the origin and type of individuals mining in the area, with
the participation of legitimate traditional miners, the project has been
4.1. Co-existence: artisanal miners work in a designated area built a processing plant for the artisanal miners. An assigned area in the
project mineral title was designated for the miners and the preliminary
Due to the strong differences in characteristic between conventional drilling established a minimum gold reserve. With the UBC Dept of
and artisanal miners, Hilson et al. (2020) revealed their pessimistic Mining Engineering, metallurgical tests complemented the pre-feasi-
feelings related to co-existence. The authors defend the independence bility study of the new small plant. But the problem of this good idea
of these two sectors “blocking out” specific areas for artisanal miners, was that not every one of the 207 identified legitimate artisanal miners
but with previous understanding of the geological environment and was selected to participate in this project, still in evaluation, buy only
“simplifying licensing and decentralize decision-making”. Whereas these 18 selected miners. This, and claims for financial compensation for
artisanal mining sites were implemented in many African countries as those not contemplated in the co-existence plan, resulted in roadblocks
well as in Papua-New Guinea, the environmental problem was not re- and protests (El Tiempo, 2017).
solved and the miners did not evolved to produce more efficiently. In This co-existence model was also used by MINESA, in Colombia,
fact, this model cannot be considered a co-existence between mining which has established a small plant (20 tpd) for the artisanal miners in
companies and artisanal miners, but only an accommodation system its titles. In another case, Mineros S.A., a Colombian company, acquired
where artisanal miners work in the companies’ concessions. In Nicar- the Bonanza Gold Mine in Nicaragua from the American company
agua for example, the government demands that conventional mining HEMCO that had a plant processing 1200 tonnes/d of ore. In 2010,
companies welcome traditional artisanal miners in a small part of the HEMCO invested approximately US$5 million to introduce a co-ex-
titles (1%), although the miners keep using mercury and other rudi- istence model whereby 2000 artisanal miners have been bringing and
mentary processes. This model has also been observed in Honduras and processing ore in two small plants dedicated to them: one with capacity
Suriname. This acceptance of artisanal miners in a company's area is the of processing 120 tpd and another, only with flotation, with capacity of
first step of tolerance, but without technical assistance from the mineral 70 tpd. The company shares the gold extracted with the miners, pro-
titles’ owners, accidents occur and miners can keep using mercury and vides technical assistance and also offers training to miners in security,
polluting the companies’ claims (Veiga et al., 2014b). In addition, this geological exploration, explosives, etc. (Bonanza Model, 2014). For
model can bring liability problems for the companies in case of fatal legal reasons, these plants operate separately from the 2000–2500 tpd
accidents or pollution of the streams in their concessions. industrial plant of the company. It seems that despite the change in
Smith et al. (2017) defended the idea that the conventional mining ownership, the Bonanza Gold is still operating in good conditions
companies, together with government, should separate an area in their without using mercury and supporting the local artisanal miners.
titles for artisanal miners to work, but the methodology of im-
plementing this concept was not developed by the authors. 4.3. Co-existence: buying ores from miners
In 1983, the Brazilian government created “artisanal mining re-
serves”, mainly in the Amazon, where miners could freely operate Two Canadian companies namely Continental Gold and Gran
(Sousa et al., 2010). A similar approach has been used in DRC (De- Colombia Gold in Colombia (CMJ, 2019) have used a slightly different
mocratic Republic of the Congo). Byemba (2020) mentioned that for- co-existence model. These companies allow the miners to operate in the
malized artisanal miners in DRC must work in cooperatives in desig- companies’ titles and buy the ores to be processed in the large com-
nated areas known as “artisanal exploitation zones”. Unfortunately, in panies’ plants. Miners bring a truckload of ore to the company that is
these cases, artisanal miners have never received any training, miners sampled and analyzed in the companies’ chemical lab. Usually, the
and communities have been intoxicated, and these areas are currently payment is around 40% for low-grade ores and can reach over 60% of
extremely polluted and degraded. Furthermore, isolation of the pro- the gold content for high-grade ores. Each company has a payment
blem does not resolve the pollution problem. table based on grades and volumes of ore to be purchased. Considering
that processing centers recover less than 30% of the gold by amalga-
4.2. Co-existence: make a processing plant for AGM mation, this seems a good idea for the miners, the companies and the
environment.
The idea of building a processing plant for the artisanal miners Continental Gold has established what they call “formalization of
seems interesting and in some cases, this resolved the frictions between the miners”. After training in occupational health and safety, use of
AGM and conventional companies. This co-existence model was firstly explosives, environmental and financial management and other social
implemented in 1993 in Las Crisitinas, Venezuela (Davidson, 1997). programs, the miners organize themselves in formal companies. Then,
Placer Dome, a Canadian company with the mineral titles of the Ve- the company has two approaches of working with a formal agreement:
nezuelan gold deposit, organized the artisanal miners already working (1) operation contract, when the miners are located inside the pro-
in the company's area and separated a small part of the claim to allow ductive area of the company (established to operate for 15 years); (2)
them to work. They also provided technical assistance to the miners and subcontract, when the miners are located in the company's claim, but
built a simple processing plant for them with grinding and concentra- outside the mining area. In the first case, the company has already
tion of gold without mercury (Siegel, 2007). This co-existence model environmental and mining permits, then reducing the paperwork for
had the benefit of encouraging artisanal miners to be self-organized and the miners. In the second case, the company provides substantial as-
to create cooperatives that operate the mines and the plant built by the sistance to miners to obtain all the legal and environmental permits and
company. The approach also came with the added benefit of for- establish subcontracts with the formalized miners. Currently, the
malization and training for the miners, who eventually could be em- Continental Gold has four operation contracts and four subcontracts. In
ployed by the company. Also, formalized miners could protect the 2019, these miners sold to the company approximately 3000 tonnes of
conventional mining company against invasions of other artisanal mi- ore with an average grade of approximately 28 g Au/t. The company
ners. Unfortunately the Placer Dome's project did not proceed due to buys the ore based on sampling and analyses. The ore is either crushed
technical and political reasons and all co-existence measures dis- at the mines before transportation or at the Continental Gold plant. In
appeared. Not only the technical, but the legal aspects of this strategy these cases, the company samples from 1 tonne of ore in 20 sacks of
are not easily resolved if the company does not provide permanent 50 kg brought by the miners. Although the material remained coarse,
support to miners. the company found a way to obtain representative samples. Then, the
AngloGold Ashanti and B2Gold are initiating a process of co-ex- miners receive 1/3 of the sample, Continental Gold analyzes another 1/
istence in their Gramalote Project, in Colombia. After a meticulous 3 in its lab and keep 1/3 in case of divergences between grades of the

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M.M. Veiga and O. Fadina The Extractive Industries and Society 7 (2020) 1135–1146

company's and miners’ samples. Miners can analyze their samples in the miners. After the gold bar was produced, the company shared the
private labs but these laboratories are usually located far from the operating costs with the miners and split the net profit in half. Miners
mining sites. Although the miners are satisfied with the reports of then received money related to an additional 30% of the obtained gold
analyses conducted by the company´s laboratory, for transparency and minus the costs to produce it. This was a very fair and transparent deal,
record purposes, Continental Gold bore the cost of analyzing the mi- but it is feasible only when the miners have enough trust in the pro-
ners´ samples after about 3 months of operation. The payment for the cessing company, which was not always the case. Another problem was
ores is dependent on ore grades, participation, and loans provided to that miners wanted to have all the money in their hands in a short time,
the miners by Continental Gold. The difference between the Continental not only the 20% payment. This is the justification for the use of
model and other existing models observed outside Colombia is that the amalgamation, as they believe they receive around 50% or more of the
company provides technical assistance once a week to miners to edu- gold content in the ore. The miners must also wait one week or more for
cate them on the locations of rich ores and on safer mining techniques. the cyanidation of the ores to receive their remaining money. Another
The success of the co-existence model is pushing the company to ex- complication of this option was that the company should stop the
pand subcontracts to three more organized mining companies. About processing operations every time a miner came with a different load of
780 people in the small town of Buriticá were positively impacted by ore. This method did not work well in Ecuador and conflicts with mi-
this co-existence process. ners stopped the transactions.
In 2005 in Venezuela, HEMCO had also conducted a similar process
but sampling the miners’ ore after crushing. This creates a more 4.4. Co-existence: a suggested improvement of the existing model
homogeneous heap to be sampled by both, miners and company before
analyses. But still, the miners do not have ways to confirm the analy- Miners can be convinced about the business model of selling their
tical results if there is no private lab in the region. ores when they find out how inefficient the amalgamation process is.
B2Gold also resolved the risks of conflicts with artisanal miners in Furthermore, they must witness and understand how much more gold a
their operations in Nicaragua, Philippines and Mali using different mercury-free processes can produce. If gold is analyzed in the ores
processes of co-existence. According to the B2Gold Responsible Mining before and after the amalgamation (tailings), the miners will observe
Report (2018), the company provides support to an existing small cy- (but not convinced yet) how much gold they are losing, i.e. the pro-
anide plant (150 tpd) in Nicaragua owned by an organization of miners. portion of gold that they are leaving to the processing centers. A good
In the Philippines, B2Gold has been purchasing ore from artisanal mi- gold balance in the place where amalgamation is taking place can be
ners working in its claims to be processed in the company's plant. In this laborious but miners must be educated and engaged in the process of
report, B2Gold stated: “our strategic approach to artisanal mining is to seek obtaining samples and gold grades of their ores and tailings. Instead of
and maintain a peaceful co-existence, balancing the need to protect our simple chemical analysis, the miners can also follow how much gold is
operations with the right to livelihood for artisanal and small-scale miners”. extracted from their tailings by a more sophisticated process of
The company revealed that they never had any confrontation with the gravity + flotation + leaching (this can be cyanidation). When they
miners. have a bar of gold extracted from the tailings in their hands, they will
In Piura, Peru, this co-existence process has also been used by two finally accept the fact they are losing money. This is a first step in
local companies that buy ores which are processed at their cyanidation convincing them to abandon amalgamation. Knowing the complexity
plants. The companies sample the ore brought by the miners for ana- and the costs of all the “new” methods, they will agree of selling the
lyses in their labs. The miners can also do the same using private labs in ores for a processing company for a fair price. Currently, most proces-
the town. An independent third party laboratory is involved in the sing centers tell them that the amalgamation process extracts 50% to
event that there is a disagreement between the two analytical results. 70% of the gold from their ores. This procedure can prove that this is
Once a consensus is reached about the gold grade, the company pays in not always true.
cash the miners the equivalent of a percentage, usually 50% (depending Conflicts over the grades of the ore brought by the miners can be
on the grade) of the gold content in the ore. This process usually takes resolved with a good homogenization, reliable sampling and education
less than one day. One identified problem is that, as the companies’ of the miners to understand the whole analytical process. The lack of
plants are located 1100 km from Piura, the gold grades must be high to homogeneity of the ore can be solved if the ore-buying companies
justify the transport, but usually the ores are very rich. Recently, the provide crushers to the miners and teach them how to make a homo-
miners were using “quimbaletes” (a large rock swinging on the crushed geneous heap before bringing the ore to be sold. In this case, the company
ore) for amalgamation of the whole ore recovering less than 20% of the goes to the mines to obtain representative samples. This eliminates the
gold. The large majority of miners were convinced that the best option transportation costs (to be incurred by the miners) of low-grade ores
would be to sell the ore instead of the amalgamation process that might be unattractive to the buyers. However, the model requires
(Veiga et al., 2014a). They found out that the companies were paying that the processors visit the mining sites. With time, the miners will
much more for the ores than the gold they extracted. This process had trust the results of the chemical analyses conducted by the processors,
strong participation of a project sponsored by the US Department of especially in situations where there is no lab accessible to the former.
State (Veiga et al., 2015). A probable solution to these problems is to have an independent
Divergences can occur when the gold grades of the samples ana- intermediate entity, for example, a company from the national or re-
lyzed by the company and miners are different. This is caused by the gional government that provides primary and/or secondary crushing,
heterogeneity of the ores and not often by the chemical analytical reducing the size of the ore. Some small jaw crushers can reduce the ore
process. The miners can also have a bad perception when the company in one pass to below 0.1 mm or the facility can also have a cone crusher.
has different agreements with different miners. This actually must be Fine crushed ore can form a much more homogeneous heap to be
avoided to have a transparent business. sampled, bringing credibility to the analytical process. This in-
Another option of buying ore from miners was tried in Ecuador and dependent entity, under the miners’ inspection, would carry out
in this case the company tried to avoid the issue of divergences on crushing, sampling and analyses (Fig. 1). The proposed entity is solely
chemical analyses due to the lack of representativity of the samples. The responsible to produce homogeneous samples and accurate reports of
company operating the processing plant engaged completely the miners the ore grades. The companies purchasing the ore can also check the
in its operation showing how the gravity, flotation and cyanidation results in their labs. This eliminates discrepancies in the sampling, and
plant operated and how the gold would be produced at the end of a analytical processes. The reliability of the gold content in the samples to
week or more. The company had paid for an equivalent of 20% of the be sold would be transferred to the independent entity. This model is
gold content upfront, based on chemical analyses of samples brought by liable to its own problems such as salted samples, wrong reports of the

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M.M. Veiga and O. Fadina The Extractive Industries and Society 7 (2020) 1135–1146

Fig. 1. Proposed co-existence model.

analytical results, breakdown of the crushing and analytical equipment, and be more productive.
etc., as would any ore-buying system. Without the trust and integrity of
the parties, all models would always be vulnerable to corruption by any 5. Conclusion
side of the transaction.
The governments should exert pressure on the established and legal Artisanal miners are kept in a cycle of poverty and at the mercy of
processing centers to adopt this business method instead of exploiting the processing centers for amalgamation of their ores. The environ-
the miners using rudimentary amalgamation to keep the rich tailings mental and health problems associated with mercury pollution have not
for cyanidation. When miners realize that they make more money with been solved by monitoring campaigns, technical training or regulations.
this business model than with amalgamation, the processing centers Projects promoting mercury-free technologies have limited dura-
will either be transformed in ore-buying companies or shut down. The tion, minimal impact in changing the polluting behavior of artisanal
owners of the mineral titles (companies or individuals) should adopt miners and most of them have focused on micro-miners. Gravity con-
this co-existence model instead of using force to remove traditional centration alone will not provide substantial improvements in the gold
artisanal miners from their areas. The formalized miners, with contracts recovery and it will be hard to convince miners to change their pol-
with the companies, should be the first ones to protect the companies luting processes. Hundreds of technical solutions exist to fully eliminate
against intruders. amalgamation in AGM, but the implementation of these techniques
This co-existence model, conducted with transparency and trust, has requires high capital and operating costs, and they are unsustainable if
proved as to be the most effective solution to end mercury use and pollu- miners do not have skills and constant technical assistance. However, it
tion, as the companies buying ores do not use amalgamation. Miners do is understandable that permanent technical assistance is very costly to
not have to invest in processing plants, do not have to pay for mercury governments or other stakeholders. It has been also observed in the
and processing services, and they also will receive more money in the field that most artisanal workers do not have interest in being mineral
same or less time than if, they amalgamate the whole ore. processors, but only good miners.
The conventional mining companies and other owners of the mi- Creating awareness on the environmental and health impacts have
neral titles must be involved in providing miners with adequate tech- not yielded, yet, the desired results of mercury elimination. Firstly,
nical, health and safety assistance in the mining steps. This will elim- because miners do not read or even believe in news from monitoring
inate a large number of fatalities and occupational problems currently projects and secondly, because authorities do not have resources to
observed in artisanal mines. Without technical assistance, accidents eradicate the main polluters (the processing centers). Most actions that
occur and the companies are usually liable for them. Another lesson removed polluters from an area had only temporary results.
learned is that, when ores are not properly sampled and analyzed, this Formalization and other legal actions, which are the preferred measures
generates serious conflicts between miners and ore-buyers. of governments and international agencies, are not working properly
It is ambitious to suggest this solution for micro-miners, especially and do not reach most miners as the formalization process is usually
in Africa, where individuals are spread all over the countries and extremely bureaucratic. In addition, it is very hard to find mineral titles
manual mining and processing methods are predominantly used. available to artisanal miners. Most of them are currently in the hands of
However, when these micro-miners work together in cooperatives in conventional mining companies or individuals.
designated areas, this facilitates the co-existence with a company that These solutions are usually specific in their objectives and do not
can establish a more sophisticated processing plant in the region, of- contemplate the complexity of the problem. As a consequence, the
fering a fair price for the ores and assisting those miners to work safely number of informal miners and the level of mercury pollution have

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been increasing over the years. Projects must focus on changing the References
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