MERCURY is now the number one item hot on the market especially needed by alluvial miners all throughout Bougainville.
They desperately need mercury to separate fine gold from dust, and a lot of these miners are searching for avenues where they can find mercury.
People who have access to mercury are now coming up with all sorts of deals, some in and even cash.
A person living close to the gold rush fields and also a village chief in the area Steven Sareu told PNG Loop that without mercury people can’t sell their gold.
“A lot of our diggers here now are used to mercury in which they work with to separate fine gold from dust and without mercury they feel like they’re lost,” Sareu said.
“We have just discovered two new gold digging sites and people have moved in, in something like just less than two days so who ever has mercury with him will be the most important person around because it is the thing they need,” he said.
Only licensed people are allowed to carry around mercury, in planes and on ships but the number of mercury coming into Bougainville is through means that the authorities don’t know off, and if it happens to spill, that’s another story.
“We have a number of people claiming to have mercury and we are now wondering how it is being smuggled into the region,” Sareu said.
Picture: Mercury being poured out into a petry dish