North Sulawesi sets campaign against mercury, introducing cyanide

North Sulawesi province is embarking on a campaign against the use of mercury in gold mining activities to prevent a nightmare of mercury disaster, that could bring about negative impacts to the people's health, Kompas daily reported on Monday.

Governor Adolf Jouke Sondakh said that after a deep discussion with the head of the province mining office, R.J. Mamesah, he came to a conclusion that the province must be freed from mercury.

"Whatever it is, the people especially new generation in North Sulawesi must be freed from the danger of mercury," Sondakh said.

He said it's better that the North Sulawesi did not get any additional income from gold mining if it had to expose the people, especially children, to the danger of mercury.

"Therefore, I have asked the mining office to cooperate with the local branch office of the Environmental Impact Management Agency (Bapedalda) to find an alternative solution," he said.

Meanwhile, Mamesah said that he would propose the use of cyanide to replace the use of mercury in gold mining operation, as cyanide could liquefy in a much faster way, in a matter of minutes.

However, he warned that use of cyanide could also be dangerous, especially if it is used by people with no knowledge about it. Therefore, Mamesah suggested that the use of cyanide be limited to a number of processing companies, and then all gold miners were asked to process their gold to those processing companies.

The processing units would, therefore, be built close to the location of mining, especially in Dimembe district in Minahasa regency, where around 6,000 miners are toiling their illegal mining sites for gold. (*)