This presentation had been presented in the 9th International Conference of Mercury as Global Pollutan (ICMGP) at Guiyang China, 7-12 June, 2009 (http://www.mercury.2009.org)

1. Potential Contamination of Mercury from Artisanal Gold Mining in the Talawaan Watershed Area, North Sulawesi, Indonesia Markus T. Lasut Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Science, Sam Ratulangi University, Manado, North Sulawesi, Indonesia Yoshiaki Yasuda Natural Sciences Section, National Institute for Minamata Disease, Minamata City, Kumamoto, Japan

3. STUDY AREA (C): Talawaan Watershed Area (D): Gold Mining Activities, Human Activities, Natural Resources

4. STUDY AREA Talawaan Watershed Area C Talawaan River Kima River Bailang River Mining Area

7. Hypothesis – Hg contamination

8. RESULT 1: Distribution of THg (ppb) in the Sediments (Control: 5.8 ppb) Talawaan River Kima River Bailang River 2357 13

9. RESULT 2 : Distribution of MeHg (ppb) in the Sediments (Control: 0.22 ppb) Talawaan River Kima River Bailang River 2.64 0.36

10. RESULT 3 : MeHg (ppb) in Fish (meat) Control: Psenopsis : 5.9 ppb (3) ; Epineplelus merra : 41 ppb (2) Blue: Omnivorous Red: Carnivorous 363 30

11. RESULT 4 : MeHg (ppm) in Scalp Hairs

12. Existing Situation Bioaccumulation process Hg o Hg +2 MeHg Discharging from the gold mining Found in sediment samples THg MeHg Found in fish samples Found in hairs samples MeHg