In 2007, an evaluation, published by international pollution prevention not-for-profit company Blacksmith Institute, reported that the Manica gold mining region, in Mozambique, had high levels of mercury emissions, which were harmful to the mineworkers and communities in the area.

One of the company’s projects seeks to con- tribute through the reduction of occupational health hazards within the Manica district of Mozambique by educating potentially affected people in the area.

The company plans to do this by promoting the use of mercury retorts, which also aid in the overall reduction of environmental degrad-ation in the region.

The Manica district has a population of around 155 731 people and borders on Zimbabwe to the west. According to the Blacksmith Institute, more than 10 000 people are directly and indirectly involved in small-scale gold mining activities as their main source of income.

Most of these artisanal miners use mercury to extract gold from the mineral ore. This amalgamation process recovers very little of the mercury used, which pollutes the nearby environment.

Plants, animals, soil and nearby rivers can all be potentially polluted by the use of mer-cury in the gold extraction process. “Mercury amalgamation results in the discharge of an estimated 1 000 t/y of mercury, representing about 30% of the world’s anthropogenic mercury releases,” the company states.

The process of amalgamation transforms mercury into a powerful neurotoxin, which works its way up the food chain through bioaccumulation. According to the inter-national network of activists, Ban Mercury Group, as much as 95% of all mercury used in small-scale gold mining is released into the environment.

Blacksmith Institute states that the nervous system is sensitive to all forms of mercury, and that high levels of metallic, inorganic, or organic mercury can permanently damage vital organs such as the brain and kidneys.

“Effects on brain functioning may result in irritability, shyness, tremors, changes in vision or hearing, and memory problems,” says the company, adding that short-term exposure to high levels of metallic mercury vapours may have other effects, including lung damage.

Currently, the company is supporting the Ministry for the Coordination of Environ-mental Affairs in Mozambique to identify and train staff who will work with local miners. The objective is to train miners on how to use mercury retorts, which will reduce their exposure to the harmful vapour.

The United Nations Industrial Develop-ment Organisation (Unido) has joined the Blacksmith Institute in its initiative.

Blacksmith technical adviser on mercury-related projects and associate professor at the University of British Columbia Marcello Veiga has united Blacksmith and Unido to contribute to the reduction of the occupa-tional health hazards of small-scale gold miners in the Manica province.

Veiga served as Unido’s chief technical adviser on a project to assess mercury pollution as a result of artisanal mining in the developing world between 2002 and 2008.

He travelled to Manica to provide officials from the government and academia with technical assistance by engaging in active demonstrations, discussions and analysis.

Training programmes have also been devel- oped in the area, which intend to introduce miners and their families to mercury retort methods and equipment.

The company notes that further fieldwork is necessary to train more community members to develop and implement solutions that they were introduced to throughout the training programme.

“With the rapid increase in artisanal gold mining activities in many African countries, the success of this project suggests that this model should be replicated on a larger scale in other communities as well,” states the company.

Currently, an amalgamation centre, which serves as a merger between Unido and the Blacksmith Institute, in the village of Munhena, a gold mining community in Mozambique, is being built.

Its specifications include a cement tank to store amalgamation tailings; a small mill made of gas tanks with a coarse chain inside or rubber balls to amalgamate their concen-trates, thereby avoiding manual amalgam- ation; and a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) filter that can be attached to a bicycle wheel to remove excess mercury from amalgams, avoiding manual contact with mercury.

The company plans to continue to monitor the effects of mercury on Manica’s people and the environment.