Gecamines offers $1 million to block Chinese deal with cobalt miner Chemaf
Chemaf agreed to sell its assets to Chinese defence and industrial giant, China North Industries Corp, or Norinco in June.
Brandon Nichols knows first hand what it’s like to get poisoned by mercury.
“I got mercury poisoning two or three times,” he told CBC news. “I got some serious headaches.”
The University of British Columbia grad student had been in South America, researching small scale gold mining operations in Ecuador and their use of mercury.
Mercury is widely used by the miners because it bonds with gold, allowing it be more easily separated from the ore hauled out of countless mines dotting the countryside.