The Illegal Trade in Chemicals

each of which may typically use less than 5 tonnes of mercury per year. Peru and Brazil have somewhat larger mercury cell chlor-alkali facilities that may each require up to 10 tonnes of mercury per year. Apart from China, therefore, and some mercury used by these countries for dental purposes, the estimates for ASGM mercury use in Table 3 represent virtually all of mercury used in each of these countries. The inescapable conclusion to be drawn from Table 3, as shown in Figure 5, is that about half of all mercury used in ASGM is traded illegally, and that for many of the individual countries involved, the use of illegal mercury is nearly 100 per cent. Even the mercury imports that are documented often follow informal pathways to arrive at the mining areas where the mercury is used. Much of the mercury that is documented when it is imported into Togo or South Africa, for example, is not documented as it is re-exported to ASGM areas in neighbouring countries (World Bank 2016). Researchers report that the price of mercury sold onsite to ASGM operations may easily be two to three times higher than the market value of bulk mercury (World Bank 2016). This suggests that the cost of mercury to ASGM operators could be US $150,000–200,000 per tonne. If half of all mercury supplied to ASGM worldwide is illegally traded, as estimated above, the value of that illegally traded mercury

is likely in the range of US $100–215 million annually, but since the ASGM use of mercury is merely an intermediate step in the production of gold, this illegally traded mercury is directly responsible for the production of gold with a market value of US $20-30 billion.

Total mercury used by countries for ASGM, and estimated informal imports

Kyrgyzstan

Tajikistan

Mongolia

Uzbekistan Azerbaijan

Turkey

Russia

Colombia

Kazakhstan

Ghana Burkina Faso

Sudan

Nigeria

China

DominicanRepublic

Iran

Guyana

Venezuela

Mali

India

Mexico

Mauritania

Benin

golia

Suriname

Senegal

Viet Nam

Niger

Honduras

Chad

Guinea-Bissau TheGambia

Eritrea

Philippines

Guatemala

Myanmar Thailand

Panama

ElSalvador

Laos Cambodia

Central African Republic

Nicaragua

Guinea

CostaRica

Ethiopia

French Guiana

Malaysia

Uganda

Ecuador

Togo

Liberia Coted’Ivoire

DR Congo

Sierra Leone

Papua New Guinea

Kenya

Cameroon

Rwanda Burundi

Brazil

Eq.Guinea Gabon

Indonesia

Congo

Tanzania

Angola

Peru

Zambia

Zimbabwe

Madagascar

Paraguay

Mozambique

Botswana

Swaziland

South Africa

Chile

Argentina

Bolivia

Countries thought to be using at least 1 tonne of mercury annually in ASGM

50 10 100

500

tonnes

Countries responsible for 85-90% of global mercury use in ASGM Countries thought to be using less than 1 tonne of mercury annually in ASGM Countries believed not to have ASGM activities, or not using mercury in ASGM

Mercury used in ASGM Estimated informal mercury imports by the countries responsible for 85-90% of global mercury use in ASGM

ASGM:Artisanaland small scalegoldmining

Sources:UNEnvironmentProgramme (2017)andTable3of this report

Figure 5: Total mercury used by countries for ASGM, and estimated informal imports

The Illegal Trade in Chemicals

48