Poisonous legacy of mercury mine
Print Edition
THIRTEEN years after Asia’s largest mercury mine closed, people living in China’s “mercury capital” in the southwestern province of Guizhou are still suffering from its legacy.
Mining in Wanshan District in Tongren City started 600 years ago, when China’s emperors believed mercury was a vital element of the elixir of life.
After the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949, the government established the Guizhou Mercury Mine Group and began large-scale mining.
However, reckless mining led to its depletion and closure in 2001.
But although the industry has gone, nearby residents must deal with the economic and health consequences, thepaper.cn reported yesterday.
‘Little Hong Kong’
Wanshan had been a boom town, known as “Little Hong Kong,” where luxury items sold out quickly in its department stores. But with the demise of the mine, former workers found themselves without marketable skills and some now eke out a living as tricycle taxi drivers.
Some fell into despair and turned to drugs, the website reported.
Yao Benfa, 59, could not find a job after he left the mine. Frustrated and depressed, he turned to heroin. He spent his 19,000 yuan (US$3,060) redundancy payment on his habit and then sold everything in his home.
“The miners contributed hundreds of millions of yuan to the nation,” said Shen Yuzhen, Yao’s mother. “Why should we have to endure all this suffering?”
Health problems also plague the community.
Shen’s husband, who worked as a miner for 35 years, died in 1998 from silicosis, caused by the chronic inhalation of silicon dust.
Mercury poisoning has also taken its toll. Data showed the mine had been forced to close for a period in 1954 after 134 workers were diagnosed with mercury poisoning.
The last updated data showed that the number diagnosed with mercury poisoning had risen to 274 in 1987.
Mercury production has also polluted local water and soil.
Data showed the mine discharged at least 600 cubic meters of water every day, containing levels of mercury that were tens of thousands times higher than the national safety limit.
A local official document produced in May showed nearly 6,700 hectares of land in Wanshan has been tainted, affecting about 10,000 people, the website reported.
Wanshan government has applied to the Ministry of Environmental Protection for 2 billion yuan to decontaminate 292 hectares of polluted soil. A decision has not been made.
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