Abstract
This study presents a picture of ASGM in Brazil and prospective numbers on mercury emissions and releases in 2016, when the country declared production of about 90 tonnes of gold, of which circa 25 tonnes came from ASGM. However, it is also necessary to consider the illegal production of ASGM which is estimated to vary between 10% and eight times more than the legal production. The proposed method included: organization of spatial data on legal ASGM output, stakeholder identification and meetings, mercury metallurgical balance, quantitative measurement of mercury in the atmosphere and qualitative social aspects such as the miners' economic dependence on the managers and scenarios of illegal ASGM annual production. The main results revealed that the initial mercury (Hg)–gold (Au) production ratio was higher for the primary whole ore than for the concentrate secondary ore, which is the most frequent type of Brazilian ASGM. The amalgam filtering technique followed by mercury recovery is routine, decreasing the Hg releases to tailings ponds or to soil and water bodies. The mercury emissions by thermal decomposition of amalgam are independent of the initial mercury mass, depending only on the mercury in the amalgam and the (adequate) use or not of emission control systems. Illegal activities reduce the availability and proper use of these systems, resulting in higher emissions. Mercury emissions from ASGM in Brazil may increase the global mercury emissions estimates, while their mercury releases may represent a marginal increase. As the mercury emitted may be trapped by the rainforests added to the mercury released, the environmental contamination may pose health risks to Amazonian population, which requires immediate action.
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R$ denotes Brazil’s currency (the real, plural reais). During the period of the study, the average exchange rate with the US$ 3.31.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the Ministry of the Environment for coordinating the Project for Development Minamata Convention on Mercury Initial Assessment in Brazil, or Mercury Initial Assessment (MIA) Project; Letícia Reis de Carvalho, Diego Henrique Costa Pereira, Luiz Gustavo Haisi Mandalho and Gabriel Francisco Silva. We also thank all the partner institutions, their directors and researchers, analysts, drivers, technicians and collaborators who supported us in the field work: METAMAT, ANM-BA, FECOGAT-PA, SEMA-AP, IEPA-AP and the State Military Police-AP for logistical support in the states of Mato Grosso, Bahia, Pará and Amapá, respectively; all the members of the technical teams of the projects carried out by CETEM, who collaborated in planning and performing the field work, as well as in the technical reports, in particular, Eduardo M. De Capitani, Antonio João de Barros, Vinicius Kutter, Renata C.J. Alamino, Hermes Galdino Pereira da Silva, Pedro Leo, Teresinha de Jesus Soares dos Santos, Daniel Francisco Pimenta Quintas, Lenira Barroso dos Reis; Airton Soares (Azul), Elisa Badziack, Marco Antônio Freire Ramos, Luiz Antonio Ferraro, Laelson Dourado Ribeiro, Maurício and Wellington (drivers); Sgt. Farias and Pvt. Nahum of the Environmental Military Police of the State of Amapá. We are grateful to researchers from INAMI-Instituto Nacional de Minas de Mozambique, in particular to Ana Natacha de Almeida (in memoriam) for our fruitful coexistence and for her willingness to document the reality of gold mining in Brazil and Mozambique. Above all, we would like to thank the miners and their families for welcoming us to their workplaces and for sharing their work and life experiences. The authors would also like to thank all the anonymous reviewers.
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This study was financed by United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) under the general coordination of the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment (MMA).
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Castilhos, Z.C., Domingos, L.M.B. A picture of artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) in Brazil and its mercury emissions and releases. Environ Geochem Health 46, 101 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-024-01881-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-024-01881-z