Yayu Indriati Arifin, Masayuki Sakakibara, Sayaka Takakura, Mohamad Jahja, Fitryane Lihawa, Koichiro Sera
Small-scale gold mining activities and their mercury emissions in the Gorontalo Utara Regency of the Gorontalo Province, Sulawesi Island, Indonesia, have been studied. The mining occurs in many areas of this region, but especially in the three villages Hulawa, Ilangata and Ilangata Barat. Mining activities in the Hulawa village are the oldest (19th century) in the regency, whereas mining in the Ilangata village began just 15 years ago. The activity level changes rapidly from time to time depending on the fluctuations of the gold market. Women and children are involved in the gold mining process. Female workers crush ore, process sediment wastes, and pan for gold in rivers. Children assist their mothers in these activities and play around the mining sites. Gold mining in the Utara Regency is estimated to produce about 290 kg of gold and emits approximately 860 kg of mercury into the environment annually. The impact of such large mercury release into the environment have caused environmental degradation and contamination of fish as food for humans. Collaborative works of stakeholders are urgently needed to find solutions to the problems related to small-scale gold mining such as marginalization and environmental pollution. © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Department of Geology, State University of Gorontalo, Kota Gorontalo, Indonesia; The Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (RIHN), Kita-ku, Kyoto, Japan; Graduate School of Sciences and Engineering, Ehime University, Matsuyama, Japan; Tsuneishi Shipbuilding Co., Ltd, Fukuyama, Japan; Department of Physics, State University of Gorontalo, Kota Gorontalo, Indonesia; Department of Educational Geography, University of Gorontalo, Kota Gorontalo, Indonesia; Cyclotron Research Center, Iwate Medical University, Takizawa, Japan
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