Mercury in coal: a review

The most notably Hg-rich basin is the Donbas-Donetsk coal basin situated in the Ukraine and Russia. Numerous coalfields in the Donbas are enriched in Hg by one order of magnitude above the coal Clarke level. The Hg in the Donbas was due to hydrothermal mineralization passing through sheared zones. The extraction and use of Hg-bearing Donbas coals have created very difficult environmental problems for the Ukrainian people.