Ministry drafts new regulation on use of mercury

By Enzharani Firsticia Siregar

The Ministry of Forestry and Environment is drafting a new regulation on technical guidelines to prevent environmental damage and pollution from the use of mercury by small-scale gold miners.

Yun Insiani, a Director for the Management of Hazardous Materials at the ministry, said Wednesday that the ministry has also started promoting the use of effective technology to minimize the use of mercury by the small gold miners as the country aims for a complete phase out in 2018.

In Indonesia, there are an estimated 300,000 active small-scale gold miners with average production of 1 gr/day. Assuming 300 working days a year, annual production is estimated at around 90 tons.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak