News you won't see in controlled mainstream media.

Mercury in gold mining a toxic threat

The darting liquid metal wraps itself around the gold to form a silver pellet the size of a marble.

The use of mercury in gold mining is illegal in Indonesia because it is toxic to both human health and the environment. But the price of gold has tripled since 2001, and mercury is the easiest way to extract it.

``Of course I'm worried,'' said miner Handoko, 23, a grim man in a baseball hat who goes by one name. ``But this is the job.''

Tens of thousands of remote mining sites have sprung up mostly in Asia, Latin America and Africa, using as much as 1,000 tons of mercury each year. The mercury ravages the nervous system of miners and their families. It also travels thousands of miles in the atmosphere, settling in oceans and river beds in Europe and North America and moving up the food chain into fish.

Continued: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...g_a_toxic_threat/articleshow/3962782.cms