MERCURY ECOGEOCHEMISTRY - A PREDICTION BASE OF MERCURY HAZARD CAUSED BY NATURAL RESOURCES PROCESSING

Nina A. Ozerova* (Institute of Geology of Ore Deposits, Petrology, Mineralogy and Geochemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, 109017, Moscow, Russia); Nikolai R. Mashyanov (Earth's Crust Institute, St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, 199034, Russia)

Mercury is known to occupy one of the first places among many of toxic substances in terms of its harmful effect on human being. The emission of Hg into atmosphere and hydrosphere during metallurgic processing of mercury-containing ores, gas and petroleum combustion and refining, coke production, cement manufacturing, results to Hg contamination of the environment. Burning of fossil fuels, mainly oil and gas, is very considerable source of mercury pollution.

Mercury hazard causes serious concern throughout the world and deserves great attention. In this connection it is extremely important to establish what type of mineral products (in addition to mercuric) and what regions are rich in mercury, what natural factors are responsible for Hg concentration in the deposits of ore and non-ore raw material and to determine the scales of such concentration. This allows deposits to be arranged according to their Hg content - in which of them by-product Hg mining should be carried out with the aim of environmental control, and in which - only purification of discharged gas.

We recommend to separate the investigations of regularities of Hg concentration in various natural objects with further evaluation of the ecologic situation, when they are involved into processing, into a special section of geochemistry of Hg - "ecogeochemistry of mercury". Its object is natural sources of mercury.

Our investigations on the Hg content of deposits of different composition were realized in practical recommendations.