Atmospheric mercury emission from artisanal mercury mining in Guizhou Province, Southwestern China

Mercury (Hg) mining is an important anthropogenic source of atmospheric Hg emissions. The Guizhou Province in Southwestern China is a region with extensive artisanal mercury mining (AMM), but little Hg emission data from this area is available. Using a mass balance method, we estimated emission factors from artisanal mercury mining in Wuchuan mercury mining area (WMMA) and Gouxi area (GX). Average emission factors were 18.2% in WMMA (ranging from 6.9% to 32.1%) and 9.8% in GX (ranging from 6.6% to 14.5%), respectively, which were 2.2–36.4 times higher than the literature values used to estimate Hg emission from Hg mining. Furthermore, the average Hg emission factor of AMM in WMMA was much higher than that in GX, indicating that double condensation processes practiced in GX resulted in higher recoveries and lower emission factors compared to single condensation process applied in WMMA. Atmospheric Hg emission was estimated to be 3.7–9.6 metric tons in 2004 for WMMA and 1.3–2.7 metric tons in 2006 for GX, indicating artisanal Hg mining was an important atmospheric Hg emission source in the study area.