Small-Scale Gold Mining Is Polluting Indonesian Lands
【By JOE COCHRANE／聯合報／馮克芸譯】
CISITU, Indonesia — In the mountains of West Java, workers like 15-year-old David Mario Chandra are part of Indonesia’s gold industry.
A workshop next to his family’s house in Cisitu, in Banten Province, has machinery that turns gold ore into nuggets. The crushed ore is tumbled with other ingredients in cylinders called balls until it is amalgamated. But there is a crucial material — and a final step — that alarms environmental and health experts around the world.
“We put 15 kilograms of gold ore and water into each ball, and we use 100 grams of mercury per ball,” David said . Workers then purify the nuggets using an open flame, burning off the mercury in sites among residential areas throughout the village.
Yuyun Ismawati, an environmental campaigner based in Britain, says the scope of the problem is evident in the amount of mercury being exported from around the world to Indonesia, her home country. Most of it, she says, is brought in illegally.
According to United Nations trade statistics, 368 metric tons of mercury were legally exported to Indonesia in 2012 from countries that included Singapore, the United States, Japan and Thailand.
Ms. Yuyun believes the mercury goes to illegal, small-scale miners in a modern gold rush that analysts and activists say is causing major environmental and health crises.
“It’s quick cash,” she said. “You dig, you get money — and you get poisoned.”
The quick and dirty production process emits mercury into the atmosphere. The metal has also seeped into soil, rivers, fish ponds and rice fields.
Mercury is known to cause health problems, which may not appear for years, that include brain damage; kidney, skin and eye problems; miscarriages; and dysfunctional neurological development in infants and children.
According to the United Nations Environment Program, small-scale gold mining is the largest source of air and water mercury pollution in the world. Emissions can spread from continent to continent.
Parts of Indonesia, including the resort island of Lombok, have the highest mercury contamination readings on earth .
Indonesia is one of the biggest gold-producing countries. Many illegal mining operations are funded by businessmen based in Jakarta and protected by corrupt local government officials, soldiers and police officers, according to environmental groups and researchers.
In Cisitu, a remote village , trucks hurtle down mountain roads carrying sacks of gold ore that was mined from sites one to five hours away. There the ore is sold to local shops. The village has 1,621 households, and Yoyo Yohenda, a village leader, estimated that one-third of them have backyard gold production workshops known as “ball mills.”
Mill operators pay about 150,000 rupiah, or $12.45, for a sack of ore and sell the resulting gold amalgam to burning workshops for roughly half the current market price for pure gold of just over $39 a gram.
Mrs. Uun, who is pregnant, agreed to give a hair sample to BaliFokus researchers in November to test for mercury. The World Health Organization defines a normal level at one part per million . Mrs. Uun had a reading of 25.3 p.p.m. Outdoor air samples taken in various parts of Cisitu showed mercury readings of 5,000 to 50,000 nanograms per cubic meter. According to United States Environmental Protection Agency and World Health Organization guidelines, communities should be prepared to evacuate based on indoor air readings of 1,000 to 10,000 nanograms per cubic meter.
Said Ms. Yuyun, “They are playing with dangerous chemicals like they’re water.”
中譯
在印尼西爪哇的山區，像15歲的錢德拉這樣的工人，都是印尼金礦產業的一員。
在他位於萬丹省齊希圖村的祖居旁，有個作坊裡有些機器設備，這些機器可以把金砂變成金塊。在一個個稱為「球」的筒狀容器裡，碎金砂與其他成分一起翻滾，直到成為合金。但這其中有種關鍵材料及最後一個步驟，讓全球環境及健康專家不安。
錢德拉說：「我們在每個筒中放入15公斤的金砂和水，並且加入100公克的汞。」接著工人在村中各住宅區的煉金場中，以明火把那些汞燒掉，精煉金塊。
現居英國的印尼環保人士尤雲．伊斯瑪華提說，世界各地出口到印尼的汞數量十分龐大，問題嚴重的程度也由此明顯可知。她說，這些汞多數都是非法進入印尼。
按聯合國的貿易統計，包括新加坡、美國、日本及泰國在內的幾個國家，2012年合法出口約368立方公噸的汞到印尼。
尤雲認為，在這波當代淘金熱中，這些汞被送到許多小型非法金礦場，而許多分析家及環保人士說，這造成了環境及健康上的重大危機。
尤雲說：「這種錢很好賺。你挖一挖就能賺到錢，但也同時中了毒。」
這套快速但帶來汙染的生產程序，把汞排放到大氣中，汞同時也滲入了土壤、河流、魚池及稻田。
眾所周知，汞會造成一些可能在多年後才顯現的健康問題，包括腦部損害，腎臟、皮膚及眼睛的問題，流產，以及嬰幼兒的神經發育失常。
聯合國環境計畫署指出，小型金礦場是世界上空氣及水中汞汙染的最大來源。含汞排放物會從一洲擴散到另一洲。
印尼的部分地區目前汞汙染程度居全球之冠，包括度假勝地龍目島在內。
印尼是全球最大的黃金生產國之一。環保團體及研究人員說，當地許多非法礦場的資金來自雅加達的商人，而且受到貪腐的地方政府官員和軍警的保護。
在偏遠的鄉村齊希圖，卡車載著從1小時到5小時車程外礦場挖來的一袋袋金礦砂，奔馳於山路上。那些金礦砂賣給村裡的商店，這個村子有1621戶，村長尤漢達估計，三分之一人家後院設有黃金製造坊，即人們熟知的「球廠」。
「球廠」經營者以印尼幣15萬元（約合12.25美元，或台幣375元）購入一袋金砂，然後把製成的汞合金以大約純金現貨價的一半價格，即每公克39美元（台幣1170元），賣給煉金坊。
齊希圖村居民尤恩太太目前懷有身孕，去年11月她同意提供頭髮樣本給環保組織BaliFokus的研究人員，以檢測她體內的含汞量。世界衛生組織公告的汞含量正常標準，是百萬分之一，尤恩太太的數值是百萬分之25.3。在齊希圖村不同地點採到的戶外空氣樣本顯示，含汞量是每立方公尺5千到5萬毫微克。根據美國環境保護署及世界衛生組織的指南，室內空氣含汞量達每立方公尺1千到1萬毫微克，社區居民就該準備撤離。
尤雲說：「他們拿危險化學物當作水一樣對待。」
留言列表
