At dawn in Uganda’s Kassanda District, Aisha, an artisanal gold miner and cooperative member, prepares for another day of work. For years, mercury was a constant in her daily routine—affordable, familiar, and fast. Yet it was also deeply harmful, with effects on both health and the environment that many miners had long come to accept as the cost of survival. However, as Uganda’s 2022 Mining and Minerals Act officially prohibited its use in artisanal and small-scale gold mining, and the price increased, Aisha began to reconsider. Encouraged by peers and supported by training from the planetGOLD project, she took a risk and transitioned to a mercury-free process. Her returns have since more than doubled, and her story has become an example for others navigating the same uncertain terrain.
In recent years, the IMPACT team has observed as mercury prices in Uganda have spiked from 800,000 UGX ($218.30 USD) per kilo to nearly 1.8 million UGX ($490.86 USD), an increase tied to both global regulation and local adaptation. As Uganda implements its ban, mercury supply chains have shifted underground with black-market routes, particularly via Kenya, becoming prevalent. This illicit trade has not only inflated prices but also introduced risks associated with smuggling and inconsistent quality, further complicating miners’ reliance on mercury.
Miners face hard choices. Wet pan mills, originally intended as a step toward mercury-free processing, are now being misused in some regions. These mills use heavy grinding wheels to crush ore and release gold particles. They are typically paired with cyanidation tanks, where gold is chemically separated from crushed ore over time. Instead of collecting tailings for cyanidation, some miners add mercury directly into the mills to expedite gold recovery. While cyanidation can take weeks, mercury amalgamation yields small amounts of gold daily, which is critical for those with urgent financial needs.
However, this shortcut carries consequences. Mercury binds to gold and other metals in the mill, producing contaminated amalgam. The resulting gold fetches lower prices due to purification losses. In addition, prolonged milling causes mercury to degrade and disperse, releasing toxic waste into the environment. Importantly, adding mercury directly to the mill is classified as one of the worst practices under the Minamata Convention, known as whole ore amalgamation. This method contaminates all mining materials and the environment, while also releasing harmful vapours.
Miners are aware of the risks that come with mercury use. Many are willing to make the switch, but the transition to mercury-free methods often requires upfront capital, which is out of reach for many, particularly women.
Aisha overcame this hurdle by seizing a timely opportunity. She had previously purchased ore from a pit with a mercury-free cyanidation system, and the operator allowed her to process it there at no extra cost. This arrangement gave her the chance to test mercury-free processing without pausing her work or making a significant upfront investment. Encouraged by the high returns, she made the decision to temporarily forgo daily earnings and reinvest in long-term returns. Through proper cyanidation, she now earns more than twice what she used to with mercury.
Her success is inspiring others. When fellow miners see that mercury-free methods can produce results in as little as two to three days, rather than waiting two months, the argument for change becomes not only persuasive but urgent. While full cyanidation typically takes several weeks, partial recovery methods like small-scale agitation or initial carbon collection can yield usable amounts of gold within a few days, offering a workable compromise between speed and safety.
Enforcement of Uganda’s 2022 Mining and Minerals Act continues to evolve, with progress underway to connect legal frameworks with real-world application. A recent training session with the Police Minerals Protection Unit underscored the need for further support in areas such as evidence handling and legal processes. Customs officials are also building greater awareness of how to manage mercury shipments that may otherwise go unnoticed.
Zimbabwe’s Regulatory Gaps
In Zimbabwe, while the Environmental Management Act promotes environmentally sound practices and supports the country’s obligations under the Minamata Convention, there is no specific provision that explicitly bans mercury use in artisanal and small-scale gold mining.
Enforcement challenges persist, due in part to limited resources and capacity among relevant agencies. Although amendments to Zimbabwe’s Mines and Minerals Act and Environmental Management Act are underway, earlier drafts did not include mercury-related clauses. This situation highlights the need for continued collaboration between government, NGOs, and local communities to strengthen enforcement and support safe practices at mine sites.
Preliminary insights also suggest that the cost and accessibility of licensed chemical suppliers discourage legal purchases. Most miners rely on small quantities of mercury sold informally—such as teaspoon sized quantities priced as high as $15 USD—oftenbrought in from Mozambique. A shortage of affordable alternatives and the convenience of these informal sources reinforce continued mercury use. In communities where gold prices are rising, this has also triggered inflation of basic commodities, which some attribute to increased liquidity in mining communities following gold sales, thereby driving up local commodity prices and affecting purchasing power for miners.
These dynamics underscore the scale of the challenge. While policy reform remains slow, the planetGOLD Zimbabwe project is engaging government, civil society, and mining communities to help close these regulatory gaps and support safer practices at mine sites.
Encouraging Improved Practices in Côte d’Ivoire
In Côte d’Ivoire, Article 68 of the 2014 mining code and Article 69 of its Implementing Decree prohibit the use of chemicals in artisanal and small-scale mining, including mercury. This is reinforced by the 2023 Environmental Code, and Côte d’Ivoire’s ratification of the Minamata Convention. Despite this prohibition, mercury is widely used across mine sites.
The IMPACT team has observed mercury sold for around 500 FCFA ($0.85) for 10 grams. Artisanal miners lack the technical skills to handle mercury properly and often use two to three times more than necessary due to limited knowledge.While experts suggest 1.3 grams of mercury is needed to extract 1 gram of gold, many miners exceed this ratio.
Alternatives such as borax or cyanidation are largely unfamiliar, though a few actors are becoming increasingly aware of available options. To address this, the planetGOLD Côte d’Ivoire project has taken a phased approach: conducting a Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices assessment survey, engaging a community-based NGO to raise awareness at five pilot sites, and organizing trainings sessions including safer mercury handling, demonstrations of alternatives like borax, and distribution of personal protective equipment.
Barriers to change include a lack of information on alternatives, their unavailability at mine sites, and legal constraints around the approval of certain mercury-free technologies and small-scale processing equipment. It is also difficult to openly discuss mercury use with miners, as miners often fear punishment or do not trust authorities. The project is working to address some of these underlying challenges by gaining trust with local communities and encourage improved practices over time.
Mercury use also brings wider economic and environmental consequences—polluting soil and water and reducing agricultural productivity in affected areas. Social and health impacts remain under-documented due to limited awareness among miners and health professionals about the long-term, often invisible, nature of mercury exposure. Strengthening regulatory enforcement through multi-stakeholder collaboration, increasing access to alternatives, and supporting medical monitoring in mining communities could support more sustainable practices. This includes shifting away from repressive or fear-driven enforcement and toward collaborative strategies that build trust between miners, authorities, and civil society.
Making Mercury History
Across Africa, as countries seek to implement their obligations under the Minamata Convention and make mercury illegal, the trade of the chemical has gone underground and also increased prices. This has left an opening for projects like planetGOLD to encourage improved practices and safer alternatives, as miners and traders feel the strain of regulations and declining profit margins.
Change is underway, driven not only by policy but by lived experience. Where miners like Aisha lead, others follow. Peer learning is emerging as one of the most powerful tools in reducing mercury use. Cooperative members who have transitioned to alternatives are actively training others, showing that safer methods can work—and pay. IMPACT has seen how across Uganda and in Côte d’Ivoire, local partner cooperatives played an important role in leading their members and mentoring other groups on broader formalization practices and improved practices towards responsible mining.
The decision to stop using mercury is rarely ideological. It is practical. Economic. Often urgent. As enforcement mechanisms increase their capacities and alternatives become more accessible, miners are realizing they do not have to shoulder the burden of mercury alone. In Uganda, Zimbabwe, and Côte d’Ivoire, turning away from mercury is not just a regulatory milestone. It is a critical turning point for the future of the sector and the communities involved.
With stronger laws, peer-driven change, and a clear understanding of the true costs involved, artisanal mining communities are slowly rewriting what it means to mine gold responsibly. But policy still plays a crucial role. Well-crafted regulations can establish the guardrails for safer practices, while poor or uneven enforcement can undermine even the most promising shifts.
For long-term change to take root, policies must be accompanied by sustained investment in training, infrastructure, and support systems that reach miners where they are, but also by regional and global coordination. Initiatives like the Minamata Convention and the planetGOLD Programme help drive international momentum, yet in a context of porous borders and decentralized supply chains, closing off one access point often leaves many others open. Regional efforts are essential to reinforce national action.
Equally important is ensuring that the shift from policy to practice accounts for the realities of informal mining economies, especially where miners operate in criminalized or heavily stigmatized environments. Supporting change under these conditions requires trust-building, flexible enforcement, and monitoring approaches that prioritise inclusion. Only by aligning strong policies with local realities can mercury use in artisanal mining be reduced for good.
The planetGOLD projects in Côte d’Ivoire, Uganda, and Zimbabwe are supported by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and led by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
- In Côte d’Ivoire, the project is executed by IMPACT and the Centre Africaine pour la Santé et l’Environnement (CASE).
- In Uganda, the project is executed by IMPACT in partnership with Uganda’s National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) and the country’s Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development under the Department of Mines.
- In Zimbabwe, the project is executed by IMPACT, in close coordination with the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development, the Ministry of Environment, Climate and Wildlife and the Environment Management Agency.