Good morning, this is Paula. Mercury can cause irreversible damage to human health and will remain forever in nature. But for vulnerable populations with limited economic opportunities, the deadly substance offers a surefire way to separate a few specks of gold and the hope of a better life for their families.

I visited a region of the Philippines known for small-scale gold mining, where I reported on a United Nations-funded project attempting to help miners kick the habit, and the challenges involved in implementing the Minamata Convention on Mercury.

Paula Dupraz-Dobias

04.10.2024

The UN is helping Filipino gold miners quit toxic mercury – it's harder than it looks

Photo article

Allan Francisco, a mine owner in Paracale, Philippines, showing an amalgam of mercury and gold in his hand, 21 September 2024. (Geneva Solutions/Paula Dupraz-Dobias)

Set along the southeastern coast of Luzon Island, Paracale is a buzzing commercial town in the country’s historically biggest gold mining regions. Yet few signs of the industry are visible, except for a handful of large column-fronted homes – monuments to the few families who left poverty behind. Unlike in areas around the world where gold production is associated with open-pit industrial mining, most extraction in the Philippines happens underground and as small-scale, illegal operations.

In spite of a global treaty to phase down mercury use, the toxic chemical is still widely employed in the process, adding to other personal risks facing miners and residents of a community. Inhaling mercury vapours can have severe neurological effects and cause lung damage, blood loss or even death.

“It’s harmful, but I have no choice,” Allan Francisco, a 50-year-old lanky mine owner, tells Geneva Solutions. “It’s what my grandmother and grandfather used.” Four years ago, after his father’s passing, Francisco took over the informal riverside operation, where around a dozen workers operate machinery and unload bags filled with ore dug up ever deeper under the ground. He is proud that his work has allowed him to send one of his two daughters to university.

Read the full story on Geneva Solutions.

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