Gold Mining

We have heard that there are gold mines near our site which are pretty dangerous. On our site visit a mother was mourning the loss of her son because the roof of the mine collapsed. The other day we visited a place where they grind up rocks and extract the gold. We were startled to see an adolescent put a drop of mercury on hand. The mercury attracts the gold like a magnet and then they use a blowtorch to burn away the mercury. I was curious about the health impacts of this and I discovered this article about bush mines in West Africa, which is exactly what is going on in our community. I would encourage you all to read it as it it pretty enlightening about where a lot of gold comes from.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-08-10-104690609_x.htm