Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) of gold has adversely affected the environment and human health for decades, mostly due to excessive use of mercury. With the enactment of the zero mercury law, miners in Columbia began to replace mercury with cyanide and improve their processes. We analyzed the extraction dynamics, based on what had been identified in the municipality of Andes (Colombia) and indexed the pollutant loads of discharges from different small-scale mining gold plants. Gold production for the year 2022 in the municipality of Andes is predicted to total 9811.4 g. None of the sampled small-scale mines currently complies with the permissible parameters for ions and metals in industrial discharges; however, the contamination levels have been reduced for the: La Y mine by 18%, Dorado mine by 13.3%, El Molino by 8.6%, and La Soledad mine by 2.7%. This shows that the ASM operators in the municipality of Andes are beginning to implement cleaner production strategies.

几十年来，手工和小规模采金业一直对环境和人类健康造成不利影响，这主要是由于过度使用汞造成的。随着零汞法的颁布，哥伦比亚的矿工开始用氰化物代替汞，并改善其工艺。我们根据安第斯山脉（哥伦比亚）市政府确定的开采活动分析了开采动态，并对不同规模的小型采金厂排放的污染物负荷进行了索引。预计2022年安第斯山区的黄金总产量为9811.4克。目前，没有任何抽样的小型矿山符合工业排放中离子和金属的允许参数；但是，以下地区的污染水平已降低：La Y矿减少了18％，Dorado矿减少了13.3％，El Molino减少了8.6％，拉索莱达（La Soledad）矿则下降了2.7％。这表明，安第斯市的ASM运营商已开始实施清洁生产战略。