Artisanal Gold Mining without Mercury Pollution

Recently, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) allocated US$350,000 to UNIDO for formulating a global action plan for countries affecting international waters with mercury from artisanal mining. Six countries from three continents will participate: Brazil (Amazon River), Lao People's Democratic Republic (Mekong River), Indonesia (marine environment, especially Java Sea), Sudan (Nile River), Tanzania (Lake Victoria) and Zimbabwe (Zambezi River).

The UNIDO-GEF global action plan will identify what steps should be taken in order to remove barriers to the introduction of cleaner artisanal gold mining technologies. As a follow-up, a full project will be developed designed to help the governments of the six countries, where gold mining activities affect international waters with mercury emissions from artisanal mining, design regulations, institutional structures and a legal framework of the mining sector.