Mercury Reduction on Gold Extraction in Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining. A Case Study in Pelangan Village, West Nusa Tenggara Province, Indonesia

Harry, Irawan Johari Mercury Reduction on Gold Extraction in Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining. A Case Study in Pelangan Village, West Nusa Tenggara Province, Indonesia. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

The most common method used for gold processing in artisanal and small-scale mining is amalgamation using mercury as a gold extracting agent. Indonesia is one of the countries that ratify the Minamata Convention, meaning that Indonesia has agreed to reduce or even eliminate the use of mercury. Some methods for replacing mercury as a gold-extracting agent are cyanidation and borax. The research aims to determine whether the miners in Pelangan still use mercury in gold processing. The method of this research is observation, interviews, and literature review. The data obtained were then analyzed descriptively. The result indicates that the miners in Pelangan Village use two methods of gold processing from ore: (1) amalgamation using mercury followed by cyanidation and (2) cyanidation. Most of the miners use the cyanidation method without going through amalgamation. The main reason they do not use mercury are amalgamation method yields low gold recovery and the price of mercury is high. This indirectly shows that the miners in Pelangan Village have contributed to efforts to reduce mercury use in Indonesia.

Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	300 Ilmu Sosial > 330 Ekonomi
Divisions:	Kepegawaian UMMAT > Angka Kredit Dosen
Depositing User:	Muhammad Soadikin
Date Deposited:	30 Nov 2023 04:52
Last Modified:	30 Nov 2023 04:52
URI:	http://repository.ummat.ac.id/id/eprint/8270

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