Mongolia’s environmental problems
As the world celebrates World Environment Day today and looks to Mongolia to play the perfect host for this United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) funded event, UNEP draws some stark comparisons between Mongolia’s environmental successes and failures.
As Mongolia is a rapidly growing economy, it is seeing a spurt in population and mechanisation. The capital, Ulaanbaatar, has seen the number of vehicles double over the last ten years. Consequently, air pollution is a great problem. The World Health Organisation (WHO) specifies that over half of Ulaanbaatar’s vehicles do not meet emissions’ standards and 80 per cent of them are over 10 years old.
Air that is thick as soot
Much like in India, traditional coal and wood fired indoor stoves are another source of air pollution. Ger districts in Mongolia are located on the outskirts of Ulaanbaatar are home to an estimated 1,75,000 households of migrants from rural areas looking for jobs in the growing economy of the city. The districts are characterised by Mongolia's traditional white canvas dwellings. These residents are exposed to soot, sulphur dioxide and other pollutants from the indoor cooking stoves. The WHO recently reported that the particulate matter in the ger districts is 7 times higher than WHO standards.
Mining for hope
Behind the unassuming brick walls of a remote compound in Mongolia’s Mandal district lies what may be part of the solution to the pressing health challenge posed by the use of mercury in artisanal small-scale gold mining.
Mercury is a powerful neurotoxin that is especially harmful to developing foetuses and young children. Once emitted, mercury can travel great distances through the atmosphere, causing global contamination of ecosystems, animals and the human food chain.
Despite the dangers, miners continue to use mercury. This year’s UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Global Mercury Assessment found that small-scale gold mining accounts for 35 per cent of mercury emitted into the air and directly threatens the health of an estimated 15 million miners in 70 countries—mainly in Africa, Asia and South America.
However, some of the roughly 100,000 Mongolian small-scale gold miners now have an alternative. Inside the compound, which is surrounded by stark hills and grassy plains dotted with grazing horses and cattle, sits one of only a few mercury-free processing facilities in the country.
a model for others to follow, particularly since many nations will soon have obligations under the Minamata Convention—a global treaty on controlling mercury use, emissions and releases agreed in January after four years of negotiations convened by UNEP.
“These types of initiatives put Mongolia in a strong place to be able to sign and ratify the convention and comply with its obligations,” says Brenda Koekkoek, Programme Officer in the chemicals branch of the UNEP, “It also provides a great model for other countries to adapt to their needs.”
Tradition versus technology
The privately owned processing plant was replicated from a pilot project set up in Bornuur (Töv Province in Mongolia) by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the Mongolian government, in consultation with miners and other stakeholders. Other organizations like the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) actively support countries to develop solutions.
The Mandal plant operates 24/7 to cope with the steady stream of miners filing in to pay $10 per tonne to have their ore processed.
The sacks of rock hacked manually from the earth are crushed and put through a gravity sluice to concentrate the gold. At this point in the traditional process, mercury would be added to form an amalgam of gold and mercury that when heated sees the mercury burn off in a toxic vapour and the gold left behind.
In the plant, a shaking table is used to separate the precious metal and allow it to be safely smelted down