Most of the
mercury and other pollutants that enter the
environment from the Khaidarkan kombinat
consist of
gaseous emissions from the mercury smelter
or from
waste streams that are generated during
mining and
processing of the ore. Over 13 million
tonnes of slag,
4 million tonnes of tailings and several
million tonnes of
waste rock deposited in close proximity to
the town are posing
signifiant instability and pollution risks
to the community.
Next to these huge deposits, there also is
a smaller sludge pond that contains
several thousand
tonnes of high concentration mercury waste
originating from the
mercury purifiation process. Water is
draining from all
these waste sites, none of which are
contained or fenced
off. Water is used for irrigation or is
drunk by cattle in
the area. Mercury is probably transported
away from these
areas, slowly but steadily, entering the
global cycle. None of
the other mercury mines recently closed
has had |
|
comparable
amounts of waste stored on the
surface – most of these facilities
“backfiled” such waste
into the shafts or buried it beneath soil
and clay caps.
There are a
number of straightforward measures that
can reduce the local and global negative
environmental impacts from these
sites. Such activities comprise
capping, water drainage modifiations,
and re-vegetation. National experience of
such remediation work is
limited but the technical
requirements can be fulfiled
with existing workforce.
Implementation of remediation
measures would also create relevant
employment in
Khaidarkan over several years and create
skills which can then
be utilized at other hazardous waste sites
in the region. Given
that Khaidarkan is a state-owned
company, there is limited local
capacity for investing in
environmental remediation. |
