From the Californian Gold rush in 1849 up to the present day, the extraction of gold has been intertwined with mercury and environmental contamination. Though corporate mining operations no longer use mercury to amalgamate gold, knowledge of this process as a means of gold extraction and purification (developed by the colonial powers during the early modern period and exploited by pioneers and settlers during the gold rush era of the later nineteenth century) has now become ubiquitous across the goldfields of the developing world. Today, mercury is utilised by legions of subsistence miners across Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia. This re-distribution of mercury across the globe and its consequent intrusion into a myriad of local ecosystems has been occurring alongside a growing understanding of mercury’s toxicity, its enduring presence in the environment, and the particular risk it poses to apex predators (including humans). This presentation will unpack how gold and mercury have become intertwined through mining technologies, trade networks, the colonial project, and post-colonial power structures. In the process, it will reveal the relevance of a mid-twentieth century industrial disaster in Japan to recent international attempts to control small-scale mining across the developing world. It will also demonstrate some of the contributions science and technology studies can make to recognising and addressing the issues that underlie climate change and global pollution.

There will be a discussion session tomorrow (13 February) with Dr Peter Oakley (Royal College of Art) in discussion with Dr Catherine M Jackson (Faculty of History, Oxford).