A general view of a gold leaching plant with tanks containing sodium cyanide at Mikei gold mining area. Artisanal and small-scale gold mining in Western Kenya supports thousands of livelihoods and despite its significant contribution to the region's economy, the sector has remained largely informal. Miners still rely on mercury and sodium cyanide in gold processing, chemicals that pose environmental and public health problems. Kenya is a signatory to the Minamata Convention on Mercury in a global effort to prevent mercury pollution, unfortunately, mercury is still widely traded in the gold min
A general view of a gold leaching plant with tanks containing sodium cyanide at Mikei gold mining area. Artisanal and small-scale gold mining in Western Kenya supports thousands of livelihoods and despite its significant contribution to the region's economy, the sector has remained largely informal. Miners still rely on mercury and sodium cyanide in gold processing, chemicals that pose environmental and public health problems. Kenya is a signatory to the Minamata Convention on Mercury in a global effort to prevent mercury pollution, unfortunately, mercury is still widely traded in the gold mining sector. The Migori County Artisanal Miners Cooperative Society (MICA) is calling on the government to have the sector streamlined to sustainably benefit the community and ensure adverse environmental impacts associated with gold mining are controlled.
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Photo credit: © SOPA Images / Alamy / Afripics
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Keywords: artisanal, convention, economy, environmental, gold, hazardous, leaching, mikei, minamata, miners, mining, plant, pollution, processing, sustainability, tanks, village
