Thinking out loud and posting it I am thinking about that past article that stated the local illegal miners are starting to give up on near surface mining because of greed, their religion and many people have died in cave-ins. Bali has a more educated people then Lombok. Lombok has more poverty then Bali. The people of Lombok are starting to understand that mercury will kill them. There are articles in travel blogs (travel adviser) I have read stating the food is full of mercury on the island. This study below tells the story about mercury in Lombok. Will this mean that legal miners like SA will be welcome once the illegal mining stops? They are hinting about focusing more on tourism. They say that tourism will bring in more income. Way back I read and posted that Newmont left Lombok originally because the island was leaning towards tourism and moving away from mining. Is this the way they are going? I am not sure, but if the people are moving away from local mining maybe they will support tourism first before mining. After reading that May Parliament recommendation I wonder if they could change their direction. The Governor has more authority and that could be good for SA. I am trying to understand the complete picture. Onward and upward. Cheers.
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Assessment of environmental mercury discharge at a four-year-old artisanal gold mining area on Lombok Island, Indonesia.
Source
International Research Centre for the Management of Degraded and Mining Lands (IRC-MEDMIND), Brawijaya University and the University of Mataram, Indonesia. bqdewi@yahoo.com c.w.n.anderson@massey.ac.nz.
Abstract
Indonesian artisanal and small-scale gold mining activities (ASGM) have been described for the islands of Borneo (Kalimantan) and Sulawesi. But the increased gold price over recent years has seen operations extend to the islands of Lombok and Sumbawa. For the current research, an environmental assessment was conducted across three new ASGM locations. Gold is recovered by miners through a two-stage process of whole-ore amalgamation and cyanidation. Waste (tailings) is discharged to land or sea with no concern for contaminants in the tailings. The gold grade of ore is up to 5000 mg kg(-1). The mean gold grade of the amalgamation tailings is 7 mg kg(-1), dropping to 1.2 mg kg(-1) for the cyanidation tailings. The mean mercury concentration of the amalgamation tailings is about 3000 mg kg(-1) and greater than 1600 mg kg(-1) for the cyanidation tailings. Samples of paddy rice grain collected adjacent to cyanidation tailings ponds showed methyl mercury concentrations greater than 100 ng g(-1). This is five times above the Chinese permissible level for total mercury in food crops. The mean total mercury concentration in hair of Lombok ASGM workers was greater than that in a non-exposed population; however there was no difference in methyl mercury concentration. This indicates the primary pathway of mercury exposure is inhalation of volatile mercury in the atmosphere. Future exposure may come from ingestion of methyl mercury contaminated rice where discharge of cyanide tailings to paddies continues. To protect the environment and to enhance the sustainability of ASGM, appropriate tailings management must be implemented. The gold grade of the tailings indicates that the residual value might be recoverable with appropriate technology. Ongoing research is investigating systems such as phytoextraction that might assist ASGM operators in Lombok and Sumbawa to improve their environmental performance.