Total mercury pathways from artisanal small-scale gold mining in Sukabumi using system dynamic model
Astried Sunaryani and Yohanes Susanto Ridwan

Research Unit for Clean Technology, Indonesian Institute of Sciences

Abstract

Artisanal small-scale gold mining (ASGM) has been operated in Sukabumi District, West Java, Indonesia for more than decades. ASGM uses mercury in a ball mill gold ore processing, and the waste is released into the environment during and after this process. Previous studies have found that mercury contaminated water, air, sediments, soil, and aquatic biota. However data and information related to total mercury contamination on the environment at Sukabumi were scant. This study aimed to predict and analyze total mercury pathways from ASGM in the air, water, sediment, and aquatic biota using system dynamic model. The result showed that the total mercury concentration in water was low and still meet the standard, while the total mercury concentration in sediment has already exceeded the standard. Biomagnification was occurred to plankton feeder fish and predator fish, but still below the level of tolerance mercury. The percentage error of 9.8% compared to the experimental data showed that the prediction of the developed system dynamics model is valid and acceptable. The model can therefore be used for predict the total mercury pathways in environment.

Keywords: artisanal small-scale gold mining, total mercury pathways, system dynamics model, Sukabumi

Topic: Environmental modelling and computation