Medina Mosquera, F.M., Ayala Mosquera, H.E. and Perea, J.D. (2011) Determinación de la contaminación mercurial en personas vinculadas con la minería de oro en el Distrito Minero del San Juan, Dept. Chocó, Colombia (Determination of Mercury Contamination in People Involved in Mercury-Based Small-Scale Gold Mining in the San Juan Mining District, Dept. Chocó, Colombia]. Bioetnia, Revista de Investigaciones Ambientales del Pacifico, 8, 195-206.

has been cited by the following article:

• TITLE: Green Gold—Dirty Gold, Tadó, Dept. Chocó, Colombia

  AUTHORS: William E. Brooks, Julio Andrés Sierra-Giraldo, Franciso Mena Palacios

  KEYWORDS: Green Gold, Mercury, Geochemistry, Plants, Colombia

  JOURNAL NAME: Natural Resources, Vol.6 No.11, November 16, 2015

  ABSTRACT: In place of mercury, small-scale alluvial gold miners in Tadó, Dept. Chocó, Colombia produce “green gold” (oroverde) using locally available plant extracts. The leaves of Balso (Ochroma pyramidale) and Malva (Hibiscus furcellatus) are crushed by hand and are mixed with water to make a foamy liquid that is added to the gold pan (batea) instead of mercury. After the plant extract is added, the gold, magnetite, and other heavy minerals sink and the lighter minerals are floated out of the gold pan. For final clean-up, a combination of other methods may be used. However, ICP (Inductively Coupled Plasma) analyses indicate that even green gold contains 208 - 4530 ppm Hg—this mercury may have been released from dragas or other small-scale gold mining operations that continue to use mercury; coal burning; volcanism; or native mercury released from cinnabar occurrences. ICP also indicates 308 - 106,000 ppm Ag and 452 - 585 ppm Pt.