Curated Collections

Recognizing the need for a greater understanding of mercury and gold trade flows, regulation and taxation, the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) commissioned this study of mercury and gold trade flows and regulatory frameworks. The study was informed by extensive desk research and key informant interviews conducted in 12 ECOWAS member states (Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Niger, Nigeria, Mali, Sierra Leone, Senegal and Togo.) Gambia was also included in desk research.

This study aims to detect the existence of illegal intercountry mercury trade under the social mercury phase-out movement, focusing on discrepancies in each country’s trade statistics. 

The Conference of the Parties to the Minamata Convention on Mercury, in its decision MC-3/10 on the arrangements for the first effectiveness evaluation of the Convention, requested the need to advance work in drafting a report on trade, supply and demand, including information on mercury waste flows and stocks.

This study discusses a method to detect inconsistencies in data on global mercury trade, and calculated the gap between the demand and supply of mercury to the artisanal and small-scale gold mining sector (i.e., the largest source of Hg emissions globally) in 39 countries across four regions. 

A study conducted on the Minamata Convention, its focus on mercury supply sources and trade, and recommendations for controlling mercury trade.

The objective of the study was to establish the status of the mercury trade and supply, its use in the ASGM sector, and its impacts on health and the environment. 

This brief discusses the need to amend the Minamata Convention to end the mercury trade and establish a 2032 phase-out for ASGM as an allowable use of mercury.

The EIA investigates into one of the largest reported seizures of mercury exposing multiple countries in violation of national laws and the Minamata Convention on Mercury.