This webinar includes findings from the IPEN study Mercury Exposure of Women in Two Latin American Gold Mining Countries.
Data on mercury trade and use in ASGM emerging from reports contributing to the preliminary Effectiveness Evaluation of the Minamata Convention on Mercury has shown that mercury use in ASGM has not decreased and may even have increased since the Treaty came into effect.
Over 50 countries have significant small-scale gold mining involving mercury. In nearly all cases, miners and adjacent communities are exposed to mercury directly through mining activity or indirectly through the food chain, such as the consumption of mercury-contaminated fish. Studies show that mercury emissions from ASGM hotspots travel far from their origin sites and are deposited in soil and forests, further contaminating the ecosystem.
The situation has become critical as the geopolitical shift is driving the rise in gold prices. Due to a lack of global mercury trade restrictions, a lack of border control and national trade regulations, mercury continues to be used at illicit gold mining sites. Consequently, the unlawfully produced gold is laundered into the official gold market, avoiding royalties, depriving national governments of resources and in some cases funds conflicts and organised crime.
This side event is intended to highlight the urgent requirement to amend the Convention to accelerate the end of primary mercury mining, further restrict the trade of mercury and establish a phase-out date for the use of mercury in ASGM.
The UN Special Rapporteur on Toxics and Human Rights will discuss his recommendations for Convention amendments arising out of his investigation and groundbreaking 2022 report on ASGM, the mercury trade and human rights implications (A/HRC/51/35). IPEN will also release its most recent findings from biomonitoring with Indigenous communities in ASGM regions in Peru and Nicaragua. Delegates will discuss their experiences and challenges in controlling the flow of mercury into ASGM in their countries.