By Joseph Charlie| Environmental journalist
About 40 artisanal and small scale gold miners from around the country have attended a one day training in Gbarnga, Bong County on the use of the chemical Borax as an alternative to mercury which is deem harmful to human and the environment.
The training, which was organized, by a local Non-Governmental Organization Environmental Impact Solution Incorporated (EISI) with support from UNDP and other partners, was aimed at discouraging miners from using mercury as it harmful effects include pollution, blindness, muscles and stomach pains, and crippling of unborn children.
In a statement at the opening of the training, EISI Program Coordinator Salia Sheriff said the rollout training on Borax is a project which began in 2019 to identify gold miners that are using mercury for mining and introduce an alternative human and environmental friendly chemical called Borax as its replacement.
Mr. Salia who described the miners as ambassadors in the fight to abolish the use of mercury said, while partnering with another local NGO Federation of Miners Association of Liberia, they collected samples of water, sediments, and soil at mining sites using mercury which are currently undergoing scientific examination.
He described the newly introduced Borax chemical as cheaper and accessible stressing that Liberia is a signatory to the Minamata Convention that calls for the phasing out of mercury.
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