Peru tries to end the toxic use of mercury in gold mining
DW reporter Kathleen Schuster investigates projects in Peru that aim to reduce mercury pollution in small-scale gold mining.
In this file photo, gold collected after a day of work is ready to be weighed at a mining camp that uses a machine with a special system to collect gold without the need to use mercury in the process, Madre de Dios, Peru, April 5, 2019.
One of the biggest culprits of mercury pollution is small-scale gold mining, where mercury is used to separate gold from rock and soil.
The problems this causes for the environment and for the health of gold miners is especially easy to see in South America, where small-scale gold mining has taken off.
Our partners at Deutsche Welle, DW, had reporter Kathleen Schuster from its program “Living Planet” look into some of the projects in Peru aimed at reducing the problem.
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