1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:01,000 cc 2 00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:02,000 >> Tom Zinnen: 3 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:03,000 Welcome, everybody, 4 00:00:03,000 --> 00:00:04,000 to Wednesday Nite @ the Lab. 5 00:00:04,000 --> 00:00:06,000 I'm Tom Zinnen and I work here 6 00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:07,000 at the University of 7 00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:08,000 Wisconsin-Madison 8 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:10,000 and for UW Biotechnology Center 9 00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:11,000 and for UW Extension. 10 00:00:11,000 --> 00:00:12,000 Welcome to Wednesday Nite 11 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:14,000 @ the Lab. 12 00:00:14,000 --> 00:00:16,000 Tonight we have 13 00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:19,000 Joanna Skluzacek, the new 14 00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:22,000 state specialist in STEM, 15 00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:24,000 which is Science, Technology, 16 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:25,000 Engineering, and Math, 17 00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:27,000 at the University of Wisconsin 18 00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:28,000 Extension. 19 00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:31,000 She's a 4H state specialist and 20 00:00:31,000 --> 00:00:33,000 I'm very much looking forward to 21 00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:35,000 getting to work with her over 22 00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:37,000 the next few months, next few 23 00:00:37,000 --> 00:00:38,000 years, because it's going to be 24 00:00:38,000 --> 00:00:41,000 great to have more science and 25 00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:42,000 technology, engineering, and 26 00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:45,000 math opportunities for 4H youth 27 00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:48,000 across Wisconsin. 28 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:50,000 Joanna was born in Lonsdale, 29 00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:52,000 Minnesota and went to Mankato 30 00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:54,000 State. 31 00:00:54,000 --> 00:00:55,000 She got her PhD at the 32 00:00:55,000 --> 00:00:57,000 University of Wisconsin-Madison 33 00:00:57,000 --> 00:00:59,000 in 2005 in Environmental 34 00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:01,000 Chemistry and Technology. 35 00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:03,000 Then she went to Penn State as a 36 00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:05,000 post-doc during which time she 37 00:01:05,000 --> 00:01:08,000 spent a couple of years in Ghana 38 00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:10,000 as a National Science Foundation 39 00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:13,000 Discovery Corps member. 40 00:01:13,000 --> 00:01:16,000 She came back to UW-Madison, 41 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:18,000 excuse me, UW Extension here in 42 00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:23,000 Madison on May 14 of 2010, and 43 00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:24,000 like I say, it's really great to 44 00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:27,000 have this and this greater 45 00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:29,000 capacity to serve young people 46 00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:30,000 and give them opportunities in 47 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:35,000 science through 4H in Wisconsin. 48 00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:36,000 Joanna will be talking about 49 00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:38,000 water quality concerns and 50 00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:39,000 remediation strategies for rural 51 00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:41,000 Ghana in Africa, connecting 52 00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:44,000 science and society. 53 00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:45,000 Please join me in welcoming 54 00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:47,000 Joanna to Wednesday Nite 55 00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:50,000 @ the Lab. 56 00:01:50,000 --> 00:01:53,000 ( applause ) 57 00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:54,000 Oh, wait a minute now, 58 00:01:54,000 --> 00:01:56,000 I have to test it. 59 00:01:56,000 --> 00:01:59,000 ( taps microphone ) 60 00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:00,000 >> Joanna Skluzacek: Okay, 61 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:02,000 I turned on my microphone so 62 00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:05,000 hopefully everyone can hear me. 63 00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:06,000 Thanks, Tom, and thanks, 64 00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:08,000 everyone, for coming this 65 00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:11,000 evening to hear about my talk. 66 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:13,000 Again, I just started and it's 67 00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:14,000 really great to be back here in 68 00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:18,000 Madison as a 4H STEM specialist. 69 00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:19,000 I've been away for about five 70 00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:20,000 years at Penn State, so it's 71 00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:22,000 nice to be back. 72 00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:24,000 Today I am going to talk to you 73 00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:25,000 about some research that I did 74 00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:28,000 in Ghana, Africa, as Tom said. 75 00:02:28,000 --> 00:02:34,000 I did this as part of a National 76 00:02:34,000 --> 00:02:37,000 Science Foundation grant in 77 00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:38,000 collaboration with Penn State 78 00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:40,000 and the Center for Nanoscale 79 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:42,000 Science at Penn State, so I just 80 00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:43,000 want to make sure I give credit 81 00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:44,000 where credit is due. 82 00:02:44,000 --> 00:02:45,000 That's where the funding came 83 00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:48,000 from. 84 00:02:48,000 --> 00:02:50,000 Today I'm going to talk a little 85 00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:51,000 bit about my experiences in 86 00:02:51,000 --> 00:02:52,000 Ghana and some of the water 87 00:02:52,000 --> 00:02:55,000 quality research that I had done 88 00:02:55,000 --> 00:02:56,000 and some of the things I 89 00:02:56,000 --> 00:02:58,000 encountered while traveling in 90 00:02:58,000 --> 00:02:59,000 Ghana. 91 00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:00,000 It was definitely a new 92 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:01,000 experience for me and I learned 93 00:03:01,000 --> 00:03:02,000 a lot, and I'm happy to share 94 00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:04,000 that with you tonight. 95 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:06,000 First I just want to sort of 96 00:03:06,000 --> 00:03:07,000 talk just a little bit about 97 00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:09,000 environmental research. 98 00:03:09,000 --> 00:03:10,000 I think everyone in this room 99 00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:11,000 probably has a pretty good idea 100 00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:12,000 that environmental research 101 00:03:12,000 --> 00:03:15,000 doesn't occur in a black box. 102 00:03:15,000 --> 00:03:16,000 There's a lot of other things 103 00:03:16,000 --> 00:03:17,000 you have to consider when you're 104 00:03:17,000 --> 00:03:18,000 doing environmental research, 105 00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:19,000 and definitely when you're doing 106 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:21,000 environmental research in a 107 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:22,000 totally new environment, as I 108 00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:25,000 was, coming from Pennsylvania 109 00:03:25,000 --> 00:03:26,000 and being trained in the United 110 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:27,000 States and going to a developing 111 00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:29,000 country like Ghana. 112 00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:30,000 And so there were a lot of 113 00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:31,000 things that I tried to prepare 114 00:03:31,000 --> 00:03:33,000 very well for, some things I was 115 00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:36,000 really naive about, and I'm 116 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:38,000 happy to say that this project 117 00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:39,000 was successful, but sometimes 118 00:03:39,000 --> 00:03:41,000 fairly stressful. 119 00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:43,000 And things you need to consider 120 00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:46,000 are sort of the cultural, the 121 00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:48,000 socioeconomic, which is a very 122 00:03:48,000 --> 00:03:49,000 large difference between here 123 00:03:49,000 --> 00:03:52,000 and Ghana, and then other types 124 00:03:52,000 --> 00:03:54,000 of rules and regulations that I 125 00:03:54,000 --> 00:03:55,000 wasn't quite aware of when I 126 00:03:55,000 --> 00:03:56,000 first got there. 127 00:03:56,000 --> 00:03:58,000 Luckily my time there was fairly 128 00:03:58,000 --> 00:04:00,000 long so I got to sort of work 129 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:02,000 those things out. 130 00:04:02,000 --> 00:04:04,000 And what I did was, I did water 131 00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:06,000 quality research on water bore 132 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:08,000 holes. 133 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:09,000 And you can see those in these 134 00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:11,000 pictures right here. 135 00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:12,000 This is a very typical bore 136 00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:13,000 hole. 137 00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:15,000 You can see a cement structure 138 00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:17,000 and a pump, and here I am 139 00:04:17,000 --> 00:04:18,000 pumping the pump, and we collect 140 00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:20,000 water samples. 141 00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:21,000 And these are found in a lot of 142 00:04:21,000 --> 00:04:23,000 different rural villages in 143 00:04:23,000 --> 00:04:25,000 Ghana. 144 00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:26,000 For instance, here's another 145 00:04:26,000 --> 00:04:28,000 picture of that. 146 00:04:28,000 --> 00:04:29,000 So what am I going to talk about 147 00:04:29,000 --> 00:04:31,000 today? 148 00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:32,000 I am going to focus specifically 149 00:04:32,000 --> 00:04:34,000 on some environmental concerns 150 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:36,000 in this certain region of Ghana 151 00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:37,000 called Tarkwa. 152 00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:39,000 I want to make it very clear 153 00:04:39,000 --> 00:04:41,000 that I am not an expert on 154 00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:44,000 Ghanaian government or Ghanaian 155 00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:45,000 culture in any way, shape, or 156 00:04:45,000 --> 00:04:46,000 form. 157 00:04:46,000 --> 00:04:48,000 I was trained as a scientist, 158 00:04:48,000 --> 00:04:49,000 but I can share with you some of 159 00:04:49,000 --> 00:04:51,000 the things I learned while 160 00:04:51,000 --> 00:04:52,000 traveling there. 161 00:04:52,000 --> 00:04:54,000 Primarily, I went there, and 162 00:04:54,000 --> 00:04:57,000 what was important as far as 163 00:04:57,000 --> 00:04:59,000 finding funding for this project 164 00:04:59,000 --> 00:05:00,000 was the significant gold mining 165 00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:02,000 operations that occur in the 166 00:05:02,000 --> 00:05:04,000 western region of Ghana. 167 00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:06,000 And so this is definitely a 168 00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:07,000 drinking water concern for the 169 00:05:07,000 --> 00:05:09,000 villages and I'll explain a 170 00:05:09,000 --> 00:05:10,000 little bit more about that as we 171 00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:12,000 go along. 172 00:05:12,000 --> 00:05:14,000 One of my project goals, or a 173 00:05:14,000 --> 00:05:15,000 project goal I'm going to 174 00:05:15,000 --> 00:05:18,000 discuss tonight, is, how can we 175 00:05:18,000 --> 00:05:20,000 determine the impact of mining 176 00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:22,000 on groundwater resources or 177 00:05:22,000 --> 00:05:24,000 water resources that villages 178 00:05:24,000 --> 00:05:26,000 are utilizing for drinking 179 00:05:26,000 --> 00:05:29,000 water, for all of their daily 180 00:05:29,000 --> 00:05:33,000 needs. 181 00:05:33,000 --> 00:05:34,000 And then I'm going to talk about 182 00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:35,000 some of the challenges that I 183 00:05:35,000 --> 00:05:39,000 encountered along the way. 184 00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:41,000 And I'm going to go into a lot 185 00:05:41,000 --> 00:05:44,000 of the sort of chemistry and 186 00:05:44,000 --> 00:05:46,000 analytical methods and talk a 187 00:05:46,000 --> 00:05:48,000 little bit about how I actually 188 00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:49,000 got some of the results, because 189 00:05:49,000 --> 00:05:51,000 it's been very different than 190 00:05:51,000 --> 00:05:52,000 maybe some of the talks you've 191 00:05:52,000 --> 00:05:54,000 heard here at Wednesday Nite @ 192 00:05:54,000 --> 00:05:55,000 the Lab, where researchers are 193 00:05:55,000 --> 00:05:58,000 doing work, say, at a UW 194 00:05:58,000 --> 00:06:00,000 laboratory. 195 00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:01,000 The facilities are quite 196 00:06:01,000 --> 00:06:02,000 different, as you might imagine, 197 00:06:02,000 --> 00:06:03,000 and so I can talk a little bit 198 00:06:03,000 --> 00:06:05,000 about how the methodology is 199 00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:06,000 different. 200 00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:08,000 I'm going to discuss my results 201 00:06:08,000 --> 00:06:10,000 and some of the remediation 202 00:06:10,000 --> 00:06:11,000 strategies that we worked to 203 00:06:11,000 --> 00:06:15,000 develop as we were going along. 204 00:06:15,000 --> 00:06:17,000 There was just one more thing I 205 00:06:17,000 --> 00:06:20,000 wanted to introduce before I get 206 00:06:20,000 --> 00:06:23,000 into the main bulk of my talk. 207 00:06:23,000 --> 00:06:25,000 This is mainly just to make sure 208 00:06:25,000 --> 00:06:26,000 that we're all sort of on the 209 00:06:26,000 --> 00:06:27,000 same page when I start talking 210 00:06:27,000 --> 00:06:29,000 about different things that are 211 00:06:29,000 --> 00:06:33,000 occurring in Ghana at this time. 212 00:06:33,000 --> 00:06:34,000 The big difference is between 213 00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:36,000 economic and physical water 214 00:06:36,000 --> 00:06:38,000 scarcity. 215 00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:40,000 As you might imagine, we have 216 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:42,000 some water scarcity issues right 217 00:06:42,000 --> 00:06:44,000 here in the United States and 218 00:06:44,000 --> 00:06:46,000 this red indicates a physical 219 00:06:46,000 --> 00:06:47,000 water scarcity, and we see that 220 00:06:47,000 --> 00:06:49,000 in the western United States. 221 00:06:49,000 --> 00:06:51,000 Basically, there's not a lot of 222 00:06:51,000 --> 00:06:52,000 surface water, it doesn't rain a 223 00:06:52,000 --> 00:06:54,000 lot, it's a very arid 224 00:06:54,000 --> 00:06:56,000 environment and so we have water 225 00:06:56,000 --> 00:06:57,000 scarcity problems in the western 226 00:06:57,000 --> 00:07:00,000 United States. 227 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:02,000 What's a little bit different 228 00:07:02,000 --> 00:07:05,000 for areas in Africa would be, 229 00:07:05,000 --> 00:07:07,000 it's an economic water scarcity. 230 00:07:07,000 --> 00:07:09,000 Most people, when they think 231 00:07:09,000 --> 00:07:12,000 about doing work in Africa as a 232 00:07:12,000 --> 00:07:13,000 continent that it's a very arid 233 00:07:13,000 --> 00:07:16,000 place, a lot of desert. 234 00:07:16,000 --> 00:07:18,000 That's really not the case in 235 00:07:18,000 --> 00:07:19,000 southern Ghana. 236 00:07:19,000 --> 00:07:20,000 Southern Ghana has a tropical 237 00:07:20,000 --> 00:07:21,000 climate, it rains all the time, 238 00:07:21,000 --> 00:07:23,000 it's a very high water table, it 239 00:07:23,000 --> 00:07:26,000 has a lot of rivers and lakes. 240 00:07:26,000 --> 00:07:27,000 However, there's economic water 241 00:07:27,000 --> 00:07:29,000 scarcity, meaning that there's 242 00:07:29,000 --> 00:07:31,000 not the infrastructure in the 243 00:07:31,000 --> 00:07:33,000 country to transport water, to 244 00:07:33,000 --> 00:07:37,000 purify water, to distribute it 245 00:07:37,000 --> 00:07:38,000 to the masses in a safe 246 00:07:38,000 --> 00:07:40,000 and easy way. 247 00:07:40,000 --> 00:07:41,000 So that's what we mean by 248 00:07:41,000 --> 00:07:43,000 "economic" water scarcity 249 00:07:43,000 --> 00:07:46,000 issues. 250 00:07:46,000 --> 00:07:48,000 I was in Ghana. 251 00:07:48,000 --> 00:07:49,000 This is the African continent, 252 00:07:49,000 --> 00:07:50,000 of course. 253 00:07:50,000 --> 00:07:52,000 Ghana is this little country 254 00:07:52,000 --> 00:07:53,000 right here. 255 00:07:53,000 --> 00:07:55,000 The equator actually runs right 256 00:07:55,000 --> 00:07:56,000 along here just to the south 257 00:07:56,000 --> 00:07:58,000 border. 258 00:07:58,000 --> 00:08:00,000 This is a close-up view, and I 259 00:08:00,000 --> 00:08:01,000 was in a town called Tarkwa, as 260 00:08:01,000 --> 00:08:02,000 I said. 261 00:08:02,000 --> 00:08:05,000 It's in the southwestern region. 262 00:08:05,000 --> 00:08:06,000 As I said before, there's a lot 263 00:08:06,000 --> 00:08:08,000 of water resources in Ghana. 264 00:08:08,000 --> 00:08:09,000 You can see here, it has an 265 00:08:09,000 --> 00:08:11,000 extensive river and lake system. 266 00:08:11,000 --> 00:08:12,000 This is the Volta region. 267 00:08:12,000 --> 00:08:15,000 Actually it gets quite a bit of 268 00:08:15,000 --> 00:08:17,000 hydroelectric power in this area 269 00:08:17,000 --> 00:08:20,000 because of the damming of the 270 00:08:20,000 --> 00:08:24,000 Volta River. 271 00:08:24,000 --> 00:08:25,000 In Tarkwa it's very close to the 272 00:08:25,000 --> 00:08:27,000 equator and like I said it has a 273 00:08:27,000 --> 00:08:28,000 tropical climate and it rains 274 00:08:28,000 --> 00:08:30,000 quite a bit, lots of vegetation, 275 00:08:30,000 --> 00:08:34,000 etc. 276 00:08:34,000 --> 00:08:35,000 When I went to work there, I 277 00:08:35,000 --> 00:08:37,000 actually got connected with a 278 00:08:37,000 --> 00:08:39,000 university called the University 279 00:08:39,000 --> 00:08:40,000 of Mines and Technology, or you 280 00:08:40,000 --> 00:08:42,000 might hear me refer to it as 281 00:08:42,000 --> 00:08:44,000 UMaT, which is actually 282 00:08:44,000 --> 00:08:46,000 stationed in Tarkwa, Ghana. 283 00:08:46,000 --> 00:08:47,000 It's basically a mining 284 00:08:47,000 --> 00:08:49,000 university because of all the 285 00:08:49,000 --> 00:08:50,000 gold and diamond mining that 286 00:08:50,000 --> 00:08:52,000 occurs there. 287 00:08:52,000 --> 00:08:53,000 But as we'll talk about, they're 288 00:08:53,000 --> 00:08:54,000 starting to become a little bit 289 00:08:54,000 --> 00:08:55,000 more aware of some environmental 290 00:08:55,000 --> 00:08:58,000 concerns and when I decided to 291 00:08:58,000 --> 00:09:00,000 write a proposal, I had some 292 00:09:00,000 --> 00:09:01,000 colleagues who had worked in 293 00:09:01,000 --> 00:09:02,000 Ghana before. 294 00:09:02,000 --> 00:09:03,000 I got connected with the 295 00:09:03,000 --> 00:09:05,000 professors and faculty at this 296 00:09:05,000 --> 00:09:07,000 university and they were real 297 00:09:07,000 --> 00:09:09,000 excited to have a US researcher 298 00:09:09,000 --> 00:09:14,000 come and do some work. 299 00:09:14,000 --> 00:09:15,000 Basically what I'm going to be 300 00:09:15,000 --> 00:09:18,000 talking about is mining industry 301 00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:20,000 impacts on water quality, or how 302 00:09:20,000 --> 00:09:22,000 we were trying to assess that 303 00:09:22,000 --> 00:09:23,000 with my project. 304 00:09:23,000 --> 00:09:25,000 This is to give you a little bit 305 00:09:25,000 --> 00:09:27,000 of idea of what is going on as 306 00:09:27,000 --> 00:09:31,000 far as mining industry in Ghana. 307 00:09:31,000 --> 00:09:32,000 So this is a graph that's taken 308 00:09:32,000 --> 00:09:35,000 from Dr. Richard Amankwah in 309 00:09:35,000 --> 00:09:36,000 2003. 310 00:09:36,000 --> 00:09:37,000 He was actually one of my 311 00:09:37,000 --> 00:09:39,000 collaborators at UMaT. 312 00:09:39,000 --> 00:09:41,000 Here you can see production, and 313 00:09:41,000 --> 00:09:44,000 this is either in gold ounces or 314 00:09:44,000 --> 00:09:46,000 this could be diamond carats. 315 00:09:46,000 --> 00:09:47,000 You can see diamonds that are 316 00:09:47,000 --> 00:09:48,000 two lines here. 317 00:09:48,000 --> 00:09:50,000 And the gold are the blue 318 00:09:50,000 --> 00:09:55,000 circles or blue triangles here. 319 00:09:55,000 --> 00:09:57,000 What we saw in Ghana, say, 320 00:09:57,000 --> 00:10:00,000 pre-1990 or sort of the early to 321 00:10:00,000 --> 00:10:01,000 mid '80s was, there wasn't a lot 322 00:10:01,000 --> 00:10:05,000 of gold production in the 323 00:10:05,000 --> 00:10:07,000 country. 324 00:10:07,000 --> 00:10:09,000 Ghana was going through a lot of 325 00:10:09,000 --> 00:10:10,000 transitions in the '50s and 326 00:10:10,000 --> 00:10:15,000 '60s, gaining independence. 327 00:10:15,000 --> 00:10:16,000 In the mid '80s, a very 328 00:10:16,000 --> 00:10:19,000 significant thing happened. 329 00:10:19,000 --> 00:10:20,000 The government implemented 330 00:10:20,000 --> 00:10:21,000 something called the economic 331 00:10:21,000 --> 00:10:23,000 recovery program. 332 00:10:23,000 --> 00:10:24,000 Now, this economic recovery 333 00:10:24,000 --> 00:10:26,000 program basically stated that 334 00:10:26,000 --> 00:10:28,000 now manufacturing and mining 335 00:10:28,000 --> 00:10:30,000 operations could be 336 00:10:30,000 --> 00:10:31,000 foreign-owned, or foreign 337 00:10:31,000 --> 00:10:35,000 investments would be taken to 338 00:10:35,000 --> 00:10:36,000 supplement or increase the 339 00:10:36,000 --> 00:10:38,000 mining and manufacturing 340 00:10:38,000 --> 00:10:40,000 capacity in the country. 341 00:10:40,000 --> 00:10:42,000 So what they started to see from 342 00:10:42,000 --> 00:10:48,000 about the beginning of the 1980s 343 00:10:48,000 --> 00:10:50,000 through current times is that 344 00:10:50,000 --> 00:10:52,000 they had a significant increase 345 00:10:52,000 --> 00:10:54,000 in the total production of gold. 346 00:10:54,000 --> 00:10:57,000 And this is mainly because of 347 00:10:57,000 --> 00:10:59,000 the foreign companies coming in 348 00:10:59,000 --> 00:11:00,000 and being able to put money and 349 00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:02,000 capacity into the mining 350 00:11:02,000 --> 00:11:03,000 processes. 351 00:11:03,000 --> 00:11:05,000 One thing I do want to mention 352 00:11:05,000 --> 00:11:07,000 is, so this is total gold 353 00:11:07,000 --> 00:11:11,000 production and this little line 354 00:11:11,000 --> 00:11:12,000 here is what we call "small 355 00:11:12,000 --> 00:11:16,000 scale" gold production. 356 00:11:16,000 --> 00:11:17,000 So small scale is also called 357 00:11:17,000 --> 00:11:20,000 "artisinal" gold production. 358 00:11:20,000 --> 00:11:22,000 It's been occurring for 359 00:11:22,000 --> 00:11:23,000 centuries in Ghana and a lot of 360 00:11:23,000 --> 00:11:25,000 other places. 361 00:11:25,000 --> 00:11:26,000 The difference between these two 362 00:11:26,000 --> 00:11:29,000 lines then is large scale mining 363 00:11:29,000 --> 00:11:31,000 operations. 364 00:11:31,000 --> 00:11:32,000 I'm going to be talking a lot 365 00:11:32,000 --> 00:11:33,000 about large scale mining 366 00:11:33,000 --> 00:11:34,000 operations, so I just kind of 367 00:11:34,000 --> 00:11:35,000 want to give you an idea of how 368 00:11:35,000 --> 00:11:41,000 much production is happening 369 00:11:41,000 --> 00:11:43,000 currently in Ghana. 370 00:11:43,000 --> 00:11:44,000 This continues to increase, 371 00:11:44,000 --> 00:11:46,000 definitely with the changes in 372 00:11:46,000 --> 00:11:48,000 the global economy. 373 00:11:48,000 --> 00:11:52,000 Gold is in high demand. 374 00:11:52,000 --> 00:11:54,000 So this picture here is a 375 00:11:54,000 --> 00:11:56,000 typical large scale gold mining 376 00:11:56,000 --> 00:11:58,000 operation. 377 00:11:58,000 --> 00:12:01,000 Tarkwa is a town about, I would 378 00:12:01,000 --> 00:12:04,000 estimate, a quarter of the size 379 00:12:04,000 --> 00:12:06,000 of Madison. 380 00:12:06,000 --> 00:12:07,000 That's about the size of the 381 00:12:07,000 --> 00:12:09,000 town. 382 00:12:09,000 --> 00:12:10,000 The population has grown 383 00:12:10,000 --> 00:12:12,000 dramatically because of these 384 00:12:12,000 --> 00:12:14,000 new mining companies, but 385 00:12:14,000 --> 00:12:15,000 currently there's about five or 386 00:12:15,000 --> 00:12:16,000 six of these large scale mining 387 00:12:16,000 --> 00:12:18,000 operations occurring in that 388 00:12:18,000 --> 00:12:20,000 area. 389 00:12:20,000 --> 00:12:21,000 The western region is where 390 00:12:21,000 --> 00:12:23,000 about 85% to 90% of Ghanaian 391 00:12:23,000 --> 00:12:25,000 gold is mined, and in the Tarkwa 392 00:12:25,000 --> 00:12:28,000 region a significant portion is 393 00:12:28,000 --> 00:12:30,000 mined. 394 00:12:30,000 --> 00:12:31,000 So this is a pretty typical 395 00:12:31,000 --> 00:12:32,000 mining operation. 396 00:12:32,000 --> 00:12:34,000 You can see the sort of spent 397 00:12:34,000 --> 00:12:36,000 ore slags, you can see the 398 00:12:36,000 --> 00:12:38,000 mining equipment. 399 00:12:38,000 --> 00:12:40,000 This is what it normally looks 400 00:12:40,000 --> 00:12:41,000 like. 401 00:12:41,000 --> 00:12:42,000 As I said, it's a very tropical 402 00:12:42,000 --> 00:12:43,000 area. 403 00:12:43,000 --> 00:12:46,000 This was just outside my house. 404 00:12:46,000 --> 00:12:47,000 This is what I looked at every 405 00:12:47,000 --> 00:12:49,000 day. 406 00:12:49,000 --> 00:12:50,000 Lots of vegetation, high 407 00:12:50,000 --> 00:12:54,000 rainfall. 408 00:12:54,000 --> 00:12:55,000 The mining operations, 409 00:12:55,000 --> 00:12:56,000 of course, you are changing 410 00:12:56,000 --> 00:12:58,000 the environment. 411 00:12:58,000 --> 00:13:00,000 They use slash-and-burn 412 00:13:00,000 --> 00:13:02,000 technology quite a bit, 413 00:13:02,000 --> 00:13:03,000 clear-cutting technology, to 414 00:13:03,000 --> 00:13:04,000 remove the vegetation and then 415 00:13:04,000 --> 00:13:10,000 really just start to dig. 416 00:13:10,000 --> 00:13:12,000 As you can probably expect, 417 00:13:12,000 --> 00:13:13,000 they're starting to see some 418 00:13:13,000 --> 00:13:14,000 significant environmental 419 00:13:14,000 --> 00:13:15,000 effects of these types of 420 00:13:15,000 --> 00:13:17,000 practices. 421 00:13:17,000 --> 00:13:18,000 Again, this is a large scale 422 00:13:18,000 --> 00:13:20,000 mine. 423 00:13:20,000 --> 00:13:22,000 You can see the ore coming here. 424 00:13:22,000 --> 00:13:24,000 One thing to talk about, when we 425 00:13:24,000 --> 00:13:26,000 talk about the difference 426 00:13:26,000 --> 00:13:27,000 between large scale mining and 427 00:13:27,000 --> 00:13:29,000 small scale mining, is the way 428 00:13:29,000 --> 00:13:32,000 gold is extracted from the ore. 429 00:13:32,000 --> 00:13:33,000 In large scale mining 430 00:13:33,000 --> 00:13:36,000 operations, cyanide is used to 431 00:13:36,000 --> 00:13:40,000 extract gold from ore. 432 00:13:40,000 --> 00:13:41,000 As we probably know, or I can 433 00:13:41,000 --> 00:13:43,000 refresh your memory, cyanide is 434 00:13:43,000 --> 00:13:47,000 a pretty potent poison. 435 00:13:47,000 --> 00:13:48,000 However, it's really good for 436 00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:50,000 extracting gold. 437 00:13:50,000 --> 00:13:51,000 These large silos, as you can 438 00:13:51,000 --> 00:13:56,000 see here, maybe I can... 439 00:13:56,000 --> 00:13:58,000 These silos as you see here 440 00:13:58,000 --> 00:14:00,000 are filled with cyanide. 441 00:14:00,000 --> 00:14:02,000 And you'll normally see about 20 442 00:14:02,000 --> 00:14:04,000 of these large silos on any 443 00:14:04,000 --> 00:14:06,000 typical large scale mining 444 00:14:06,000 --> 00:14:08,000 operation. 445 00:14:08,000 --> 00:14:09,000 They take the ore and put it in 446 00:14:09,000 --> 00:14:11,000 these silos. 447 00:14:11,000 --> 00:14:12,000 They mix it and they do their 448 00:14:12,000 --> 00:14:14,000 processing, and then the sort of 449 00:14:14,000 --> 00:14:16,000 spent liquid comes out these 450 00:14:16,000 --> 00:14:18,000 pipes. 451 00:14:18,000 --> 00:14:19,000 And I'm sorry I didn't get a 452 00:14:19,000 --> 00:14:21,000 better picture, but they didn't 453 00:14:21,000 --> 00:14:23,000 really like me to be where I was 454 00:14:23,000 --> 00:14:25,000 standing. 455 00:14:25,000 --> 00:14:30,000 They come out in sort of 456 00:14:30,000 --> 00:14:32,000 receptor pools, where then it's 457 00:14:32,000 --> 00:14:33,000 treated and released into the 458 00:14:33,000 --> 00:14:35,000 environment. 459 00:14:35,000 --> 00:14:37,000 In some cases it can be reused 460 00:14:37,000 --> 00:14:41,000 several times, the same cyanide. 461 00:14:41,000 --> 00:14:45,000 However, spills do occur and 462 00:14:45,000 --> 00:14:47,000 quite often you'll hear about 463 00:14:47,000 --> 00:14:48,000 large fish kills occurring 464 00:14:48,000 --> 00:14:49,000 because cyanide accidentally 465 00:14:49,000 --> 00:14:52,000 spilled into the environment. 466 00:14:52,000 --> 00:14:53,000 And people are very concerned 467 00:14:53,000 --> 00:14:54,000 because the spills are happening 468 00:14:54,000 --> 00:14:56,000 more frequently as production is 469 00:14:56,000 --> 00:14:59,000 increasing. 470 00:14:59,000 --> 00:15:01,000 Small scale mining is a little 471 00:15:01,000 --> 00:15:02,000 different process. 472 00:15:02,000 --> 00:15:04,000 Small scale mining is something 473 00:15:04,000 --> 00:15:05,000 we might think about when we 474 00:15:05,000 --> 00:15:09,000 think about in the early days of 475 00:15:09,000 --> 00:15:11,000 the United States when people 476 00:15:11,000 --> 00:15:12,000 went out to California to pan 477 00:15:12,000 --> 00:15:13,000 for gold. 478 00:15:13,000 --> 00:15:15,000 That's basically the process 479 00:15:15,000 --> 00:15:17,000 that these miners are utilizing. 480 00:15:17,000 --> 00:15:19,000 They're usually on a riverbed or 481 00:15:19,000 --> 00:15:21,000 streambed and they're panning 482 00:15:21,000 --> 00:15:23,000 for gold. 483 00:15:23,000 --> 00:15:26,000 However, gold is becoming harder 484 00:15:26,000 --> 00:15:28,000 and harder to get out of these 485 00:15:28,000 --> 00:15:30,000 deposits. 486 00:15:30,000 --> 00:15:32,000 The main way small scale miners 487 00:15:32,000 --> 00:15:34,000 extract the gold is to use 488 00:15:34,000 --> 00:15:36,000 mercury. 489 00:15:36,000 --> 00:15:37,000 Now mercury, again, is a 490 00:15:37,000 --> 00:15:39,000 significant health hazard. 491 00:15:39,000 --> 00:15:41,000 Some may say that it's more of a 492 00:15:41,000 --> 00:15:43,000 health hazard than cyanide just 493 00:15:43,000 --> 00:15:45,000 because of the way mercury can 494 00:15:45,000 --> 00:15:47,000 continue to deposit in the 495 00:15:47,000 --> 00:15:48,000 atmosphere. 496 00:15:48,000 --> 00:15:50,000 The way they use it does 497 00:15:50,000 --> 00:15:54,000 definitely lead to that. 498 00:15:54,000 --> 00:15:56,000 This is a typical miner and he 499 00:15:56,000 --> 00:16:00,000 has some mercury and some ore in 500 00:16:00,000 --> 00:16:01,000 a bucket. 501 00:16:01,000 --> 00:16:02,000 They don't use any protective 502 00:16:02,000 --> 00:16:04,000 equipment, so they usually just 503 00:16:04,000 --> 00:16:06,000 mix it with their hands. 504 00:16:06,000 --> 00:16:08,000 In some cases they'll use 505 00:16:08,000 --> 00:16:11,000 smaller receptacles with cloth 506 00:16:11,000 --> 00:16:12,000 and they'll actually, by mouth, 507 00:16:12,000 --> 00:16:14,000 they'll suck the excess mercury 508 00:16:14,000 --> 00:16:16,000 out of the cloth because it's a 509 00:16:16,000 --> 00:16:18,000 very important chemical for 510 00:16:18,000 --> 00:16:19,000 them. 511 00:16:19,000 --> 00:16:20,000 It's expensive and it's hard to 512 00:16:20,000 --> 00:16:21,000 come by, and so they'll suck the 513 00:16:21,000 --> 00:16:23,000 excess mercury out and actually 514 00:16:23,000 --> 00:16:24,000 spit it into a container to be 515 00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:26,000 used again. 516 00:16:26,000 --> 00:16:27,000 Once this process is done they 517 00:16:27,000 --> 00:16:29,000 actually fire it at a very high 518 00:16:29,000 --> 00:16:31,000 temperature and then burn off 519 00:16:31,000 --> 00:16:32,000 the excess mercury and end up 520 00:16:32,000 --> 00:16:34,000 with something like gold 521 00:16:34,000 --> 00:16:35,000 bullion. 522 00:16:35,000 --> 00:16:37,000 Now, since they're on the 523 00:16:37,000 --> 00:16:41,000 streams, this mercury can get 524 00:16:41,000 --> 00:16:44,000 into the water system. 525 00:16:44,000 --> 00:16:46,000 But what's also important is, 526 00:16:46,000 --> 00:16:47,000 when they burn off excess 527 00:16:47,000 --> 00:16:49,000 mercury, mercury will go into 528 00:16:49,000 --> 00:16:51,000 the atmosphere and so it can be 529 00:16:51,000 --> 00:16:53,000 transported to a very large 530 00:16:53,000 --> 00:16:55,000 distribution area, which then is 531 00:16:55,000 --> 00:16:57,000 a concern for almost everyone in 532 00:16:57,000 --> 00:16:58,000 the country. 533 00:16:58,000 --> 00:17:00,000 There are some significant 534 00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:01,000 things that we have to keep in 535 00:17:01,000 --> 00:17:02,000 mind. 536 00:17:02,000 --> 00:17:05,000 We wanted to take a look at 537 00:17:05,000 --> 00:17:06,000 maybe what are some of the 538 00:17:06,000 --> 00:17:08,000 impacts of these things, at 539 00:17:08,000 --> 00:17:12,000 least in the most recent times. 540 00:17:12,000 --> 00:17:15,000 This is a typical sampling site. 541 00:17:15,000 --> 00:17:18,000 Another thing, and this is not 542 00:17:18,000 --> 00:17:20,000 specific to Ghana, you'll see 543 00:17:20,000 --> 00:17:21,000 this in almost all developing 544 00:17:21,000 --> 00:17:23,000 countries, that accessibility to 545 00:17:23,000 --> 00:17:26,000 water is also problematic. 546 00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:27,000 There might be one bore hole 547 00:17:27,000 --> 00:17:29,000 well in the village and so 548 00:17:29,000 --> 00:17:31,000 that's where everybody has to go 549 00:17:31,000 --> 00:17:32,000 and they might trek some 550 00:17:32,000 --> 00:17:34,000 distance to get there. 551 00:17:34,000 --> 00:17:36,000 So people line up for basically 552 00:17:36,000 --> 00:17:38,000 hours for their turn at the bore 553 00:17:38,000 --> 00:17:40,000 hole pump to fill up their 554 00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:41,000 container to take it home and to 555 00:17:41,000 --> 00:17:44,000 use it for all of their uses 556 00:17:44,000 --> 00:17:45,000 during the day. 557 00:17:45,000 --> 00:17:47,000 Everything from drinking to 558 00:17:47,000 --> 00:17:52,000 bathing to laundry to cooking. 559 00:17:52,000 --> 00:17:54,000 Quite often, we sampled during 560 00:17:54,000 --> 00:17:56,000 the week and weekdays, usually 561 00:17:56,000 --> 00:17:59,000 about 9am to 6pm. 562 00:17:59,000 --> 00:18:01,000 We always saw children at these 563 00:18:01,000 --> 00:18:03,000 sites collecting water. 564 00:18:03,000 --> 00:18:06,000 That just is another thing that 565 00:18:06,000 --> 00:18:07,000 we need to keep in mind when we 566 00:18:07,000 --> 00:18:10,000 start talking about the 567 00:18:10,000 --> 00:18:12,000 relationship between access to 568 00:18:12,000 --> 00:18:14,000 clean water and accessibility to 569 00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:16,000 water, and also economic 570 00:18:16,000 --> 00:18:19,000 development of a country. 571 00:18:19,000 --> 00:18:21,000 We talk about children not being 572 00:18:21,000 --> 00:18:22,000 able to go to school because 573 00:18:22,000 --> 00:18:24,000 they have to do these chores and 574 00:18:24,000 --> 00:18:26,000 things at home. 575 00:18:26,000 --> 00:18:27,000 It's a big problem when we start 576 00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:29,000 talking about children 577 00:18:29,000 --> 00:18:31,000 developing and becoming literate 578 00:18:31,000 --> 00:18:34,000 citizens. 579 00:18:34,000 --> 00:18:34,000 These are some of the samples 580 00:18:34,000 --> 00:18:36,000 that we would see. 581 00:18:36,000 --> 00:18:38,000 It ranged anywhere from fairly 582 00:18:38,000 --> 00:18:42,000 clear to very turbid and most of 583 00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:43,000 the time people were drinking 584 00:18:43,000 --> 00:18:44,000 this water directly without any 585 00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:48,000 further purification. 586 00:18:48,000 --> 00:18:49,000 As I said, we were focusing 587 00:18:49,000 --> 00:18:52,000 mainly on the mining operations. 588 00:18:52,000 --> 00:18:53,000 There were a lot of different 589 00:18:53,000 --> 00:18:55,000 things we could have focused on, 590 00:18:55,000 --> 00:18:58,000 but this is one of the areas 591 00:18:58,000 --> 00:18:59,000 that we wanted to really look 592 00:18:59,000 --> 00:19:01,000 into. 593 00:19:01,000 --> 00:19:02,000 As I said, for large scale 594 00:19:02,000 --> 00:19:05,000 mining, what we wanted to look 595 00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:06,000 at is, we wanted to take a look 596 00:19:06,000 --> 00:19:07,000 at some cyanide concentrations 597 00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:09,000 and see if we could actually 598 00:19:09,000 --> 00:19:10,000 find any cyanide in the 599 00:19:10,000 --> 00:19:15,000 groundwater. 600 00:19:15,000 --> 00:19:16,000 Probably we would find low 601 00:19:16,000 --> 00:19:18,000 levels, if any. 602 00:19:18,000 --> 00:19:19,000 Cyanide breaks down fairly 603 00:19:19,000 --> 00:19:20,000 quickly, definitely in the 604 00:19:20,000 --> 00:19:22,000 groundwater. 605 00:19:22,000 --> 00:19:24,000 But we were also looking for 606 00:19:24,000 --> 00:19:25,000 other indicators such as 607 00:19:25,000 --> 00:19:26,000 sulfates from acid mine 608 00:19:26,000 --> 00:19:30,000 drainage, and nitrate. 609 00:19:30,000 --> 00:19:31,000 Nitrate initially wasn't one of 610 00:19:31,000 --> 00:19:34,000 our sort of priorities. 611 00:19:34,000 --> 00:19:35,000 However, we were starting to see 612 00:19:35,000 --> 00:19:37,000 significant concentrations of 613 00:19:37,000 --> 00:19:39,000 nitrate. 614 00:19:39,000 --> 00:19:41,000 When we think about testing our 615 00:19:41,000 --> 00:19:43,000 wells for nitrate in, say, the 616 00:19:43,000 --> 00:19:45,000 rural United States, we're 617 00:19:45,000 --> 00:19:47,000 normally looking for pollution 618 00:19:47,000 --> 00:19:50,000 caused by fertilizers, human 619 00:19:50,000 --> 00:19:52,000 waste, etc. 620 00:19:52,000 --> 00:19:53,000 And we thought that would be a 621 00:19:53,000 --> 00:19:54,000 concern here, but what we were 622 00:19:54,000 --> 00:19:56,000 actually finding was that it 623 00:19:56,000 --> 00:19:58,000 wasn't from waste or 624 00:19:58,000 --> 00:19:59,000 fertilizers, it was actually 625 00:19:59,000 --> 00:20:02,000 from blasting. 626 00:20:02,000 --> 00:20:04,000 They used a lot of explosives, 627 00:20:04,000 --> 00:20:05,000 of course, for the large scale 628 00:20:05,000 --> 00:20:06,000 mining. 629 00:20:06,000 --> 00:20:07,000 They would do a lot of blasting, 630 00:20:07,000 --> 00:20:11,000 it would make your house shake. 631 00:20:11,000 --> 00:20:12,000 It scared me almost every time 632 00:20:12,000 --> 00:20:14,000 it happened. 633 00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:16,000 So they use a lot of TNT and of 634 00:20:16,000 --> 00:20:18,000 course the "N" in TNT 635 00:20:18,000 --> 00:20:20,000 stands for "nitrogen." 636 00:20:20,000 --> 00:20:21,000 They also use some other types 637 00:20:21,000 --> 00:20:23,000 of explosives that have nitrate. 638 00:20:23,000 --> 00:20:24,000 So that also gets into the 639 00:20:24,000 --> 00:20:26,000 environment, so we were looking 640 00:20:26,000 --> 00:20:28,000 for those markers as well. 641 00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:29,000 The small scale mining, as I 642 00:20:29,000 --> 00:20:31,000 mentioned, mercury was something 643 00:20:31,000 --> 00:20:32,000 we wanted to take a look at. 644 00:20:32,000 --> 00:20:33,000 Testing for mercury is really 645 00:20:33,000 --> 00:20:34,000 difficult, so we sort of did the 646 00:20:34,000 --> 00:20:37,000 best we could. 647 00:20:37,000 --> 00:20:38,000 I can show you sort of our 648 00:20:38,000 --> 00:20:40,000 results a little bit later. 649 00:20:40,000 --> 00:20:42,000 We did look for other things 650 00:20:42,000 --> 00:20:43,000 since we were out sampling, we 651 00:20:43,000 --> 00:20:45,000 wanted to try to test for as 652 00:20:45,000 --> 00:20:46,000 many things as we could with the 653 00:20:46,000 --> 00:20:48,000 facilities that we had. 654 00:20:48,000 --> 00:20:50,000 So we did test for lead and some 655 00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:52,000 other transition metals, and 656 00:20:52,000 --> 00:20:54,000 bacteria, etc. 657 00:20:54,000 --> 00:20:56,000 I'm not going to discuss that in 658 00:20:56,000 --> 00:20:57,000 detail, but if you have 659 00:20:57,000 --> 00:20:58,000 questions at the end, feel free 660 00:20:58,000 --> 00:20:59,000 to ask. 661 00:20:59,000 --> 00:21:01,000 I'd be happy to talk a little 662 00:21:01,000 --> 00:21:04,000 bit more about that testing. 663 00:21:04,000 --> 00:21:06,000 Some of the challenges, as you 664 00:21:06,000 --> 00:21:10,000 might suspect, first of all 665 00:21:10,000 --> 00:21:12,000 would be analytical equipment to 666 00:21:12,000 --> 00:21:15,000 do this sort of testing. 667 00:21:15,000 --> 00:21:16,000 If you're living in rural Ghana, 668 00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:19,000 you have some very significant 669 00:21:19,000 --> 00:21:22,000 factors that you have to think 670 00:21:22,000 --> 00:21:23,000 about when you're doing 671 00:21:23,000 --> 00:21:25,000 analytical chemistry, one of 672 00:21:25,000 --> 00:21:27,000 which is a lack of electricity. 673 00:21:27,000 --> 00:21:30,000 Electricity would go out daily 674 00:21:30,000 --> 00:21:31,000 and would be out anywhere from a 675 00:21:31,000 --> 00:21:32,000 couple of hours to a couple of 676 00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:34,000 days. 677 00:21:34,000 --> 00:21:35,000 Not very good for 678 00:21:35,000 --> 00:21:36,000 instrumentation if they had the 679 00:21:36,000 --> 00:21:39,000 capacity to actually buy a 680 00:21:39,000 --> 00:21:40,000 spectrophotometer or something 681 00:21:40,000 --> 00:21:42,000 like that. 682 00:21:42,000 --> 00:21:44,000 Actually, my grant supported the 683 00:21:44,000 --> 00:21:49,000 purchasing of a lot of water 684 00:21:49,000 --> 00:21:51,000 reagent kits and also things 685 00:21:51,000 --> 00:21:53,000 like pH meters, dissolved oxygen 686 00:21:53,000 --> 00:21:54,000 meters, etc. 687 00:21:54,000 --> 00:21:56,000 Things that they didn't have 688 00:21:56,000 --> 00:21:58,000 access to at all, which was 689 00:21:58,000 --> 00:22:01,000 great, except it made budgeting 690 00:22:01,000 --> 00:22:03,000 a big headache. 691 00:22:03,000 --> 00:22:04,000 Because not only then are you 692 00:22:04,000 --> 00:22:06,000 looking at the cost of supplies, 693 00:22:06,000 --> 00:22:08,000 you have to purchase them from, 694 00:22:08,000 --> 00:22:11,000 well, the US or from Europe. 695 00:22:11,000 --> 00:22:13,000 They also had to be shipped to 696 00:22:13,000 --> 00:22:16,000 Ghana, Africa, so that was 697 00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:17,000 really difficult because we were 698 00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:19,000 looking at shipping costs that 699 00:22:19,000 --> 00:22:20,000 rivaled the cost of the 700 00:22:20,000 --> 00:22:23,000 materials we were using. 701 00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:25,000 So that was a significant 702 00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:26,000 expenditure and I could have 703 00:22:26,000 --> 00:22:29,000 utilized that money a lot 704 00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:30,000 differently if I wouldn't have 705 00:22:30,000 --> 00:22:34,000 had to spend it on the shipping. 706 00:22:34,000 --> 00:22:36,000 Also the timeline for materials 707 00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:37,000 to get there. 708 00:22:37,000 --> 00:22:40,000 Some chemicals that we used, 709 00:22:40,000 --> 00:22:43,000 some extraction acids and bases 710 00:22:43,000 --> 00:22:46,000 cannot be air shipped to Ghana 711 00:22:46,000 --> 00:22:48,000 or certain areas in Africa 712 00:22:48,000 --> 00:22:50,000 because of regulations, so they 713 00:22:50,000 --> 00:22:51,000 have to go by boat, which, of 714 00:22:51,000 --> 00:22:54,000 course, will take several months 715 00:22:54,000 --> 00:22:57,000 to however long it may take for 716 00:22:57,000 --> 00:22:59,000 the ship to come into port and 717 00:22:59,000 --> 00:23:00,000 then for the ship to be 718 00:23:00,000 --> 00:23:03,000 unloaded. 719 00:23:03,000 --> 00:23:04,000 Ghana still relies 720 00:23:04,000 --> 00:23:06,000 on the chieftaincy - 721 00:23:06,000 --> 00:23:11,000 ( flubs pronunciation ) 722 00:23:11,000 --> 00:23:12,000 Chief system! 723 00:23:12,000 --> 00:23:14,000 There, I got it out finally. 724 00:23:14,000 --> 00:23:16,000 And so every region will have 725 00:23:16,000 --> 00:23:18,000 sort of their own way of doing 726 00:23:18,000 --> 00:23:20,000 things. 727 00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:21,000 This process to ask permission 728 00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:23,000 from the chiefs can be very 729 00:23:23,000 --> 00:23:26,000 elaborate to very easy, but you 730 00:23:26,000 --> 00:23:28,000 don't really know that until you 731 00:23:28,000 --> 00:23:29,000 actually get there and you want 732 00:23:29,000 --> 00:23:30,000 to try to sample their bore 733 00:23:30,000 --> 00:23:32,000 holes. 734 00:23:32,000 --> 00:23:34,000 Community information and 735 00:23:34,000 --> 00:23:35,000 language. 736 00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:37,000 English is actually the national 737 00:23:37,000 --> 00:23:38,000 language and that was one of the 738 00:23:38,000 --> 00:23:39,000 reasons why I wanted to travel 739 00:23:39,000 --> 00:23:41,000 there. 740 00:23:41,000 --> 00:23:43,000 But as you can see from the last 741 00:23:43,000 --> 00:23:45,000 point, English isn't necessarily 742 00:23:45,000 --> 00:23:48,000 the best language for me either, 743 00:23:48,000 --> 00:23:50,000 but I wanted to gather some 744 00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:52,000 community information. 745 00:23:52,000 --> 00:23:54,000 Most people in the rural areas 746 00:23:54,000 --> 00:23:56,000 will speak their local language, 747 00:23:56,000 --> 00:24:01,000 which is Twi, which is not 748 00:24:01,000 --> 00:24:02,000 intelligible for me. 749 00:24:02,000 --> 00:24:06,000 So I also had to always have 750 00:24:06,000 --> 00:24:07,000 people accompany me when I went 751 00:24:07,000 --> 00:24:09,000 sampling for other reasons as 752 00:24:09,000 --> 00:24:10,000 well, but also the language 753 00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:13,000 barrier was fairly significant. 754 00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:16,000 Also, cultural stigma. 755 00:24:16,000 --> 00:24:18,000 For good reason they asked me a 756 00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:19,000 lot of questions about whether I 757 00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:21,000 was with the mining company and 758 00:24:21,000 --> 00:24:23,000 why anyone from the United 759 00:24:23,000 --> 00:24:25,000 States would come to rural Ghana 760 00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:27,000 to do water sampling. 761 00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:31,000 I can understand definitely 762 00:24:31,000 --> 00:24:32,000 their stigma. 763 00:24:32,000 --> 00:24:33,000 The mining companies have taken 764 00:24:33,000 --> 00:24:35,000 a lot from them in the last 20 765 00:24:35,000 --> 00:24:37,000 years and significantly before 766 00:24:37,000 --> 00:24:40,000 that. 767 00:24:40,000 --> 00:24:41,000 So it was also a matter of 768 00:24:41,000 --> 00:24:43,000 trying to get folks to trust me, 769 00:24:43,000 --> 00:24:45,000 to talk to me a little bit, and 770 00:24:45,000 --> 00:24:46,000 that of course took time as 771 00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:48,000 well. 772 00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:52,000 This is a pretty typical house. 773 00:24:52,000 --> 00:24:56,000 Thatched roofs, clay sides, so 774 00:24:56,000 --> 00:24:58,000 that's normally the dwellings 775 00:24:58,000 --> 00:25:00,000 that we were living in. 776 00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:03,000 Again there's some kids. 777 00:25:03,000 --> 00:25:05,000 The kids really thought it was 778 00:25:05,000 --> 00:25:07,000 pretty cool to watch me sample. 779 00:25:07,000 --> 00:25:09,000 In almost every picture I have, 780 00:25:09,000 --> 00:25:10,000 the kids are there. 781 00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:11,000 Sometimes I couldn't even get a 782 00:25:11,000 --> 00:25:13,000 picture because the kids were 783 00:25:13,000 --> 00:25:14,000 crowding all over. 784 00:25:14,000 --> 00:25:18,000 But it was cool, I loved it. 785 00:25:18,000 --> 00:25:20,000 The methods I used were not 786 00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:22,000 necessarily what you might think 787 00:25:22,000 --> 00:25:31,000 of as the most expensive or... 788 00:25:31,000 --> 00:25:34,000 high-end sort of equipment. 789 00:25:34,000 --> 00:25:35,000 I used something called the 790 00:25:35,000 --> 00:25:37,000 LaMotte test kit. 791 00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:39,000 These are basically surface and 792 00:25:39,000 --> 00:25:42,000 groundwater testing kits and the 793 00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:45,000 unit, as you can see here, 794 00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:47,000 is fairly simple. 795 00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:48,000 It's a fairly simple what we 796 00:25:48,000 --> 00:25:50,000 call spectrophotometer, which 797 00:25:50,000 --> 00:25:51,000 means that it detects color 798 00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:54,000 changes. 799 00:25:54,000 --> 00:25:55,000 So what we do is, we have our 800 00:25:55,000 --> 00:25:57,000 water sample and we put those in 801 00:25:57,000 --> 00:25:58,000 the little vials and we add some 802 00:25:58,000 --> 00:26:00,000 reagents. 803 00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:03,000 If that pollutant is present, 804 00:26:03,000 --> 00:26:05,000 the reagents will change the 805 00:26:05,000 --> 00:26:07,000 water a certain color and our 806 00:26:07,000 --> 00:26:08,000 instruments will be able to 807 00:26:08,000 --> 00:26:11,000 detect that color change. 808 00:26:11,000 --> 00:26:14,000 So if it's used very carefully, 809 00:26:14,000 --> 00:26:16,000 and we would always use 810 00:26:16,000 --> 00:26:18,000 standards to make sure that we 811 00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:19,000 were calibrating things 812 00:26:19,000 --> 00:26:21,000 correctly, we always tried to 813 00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:23,000 use check samples. 814 00:26:23,000 --> 00:26:24,000 If they're used carefully, you 815 00:26:24,000 --> 00:26:25,000 can actually get very good 816 00:26:25,000 --> 00:26:27,000 readings from low-cost 817 00:26:27,000 --> 00:26:29,000 instrumentation like this. 818 00:26:29,000 --> 00:26:30,000 As long as the levels of 819 00:26:30,000 --> 00:26:32,000 pollutant that you're looking at 820 00:26:32,000 --> 00:26:34,000 are fairly high. 821 00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:36,000 They don't have very good limits 822 00:26:36,000 --> 00:26:37,000 of detection, is what we call it 823 00:26:37,000 --> 00:26:39,000 in sort of the scientific 824 00:26:39,000 --> 00:26:40,000 community. 825 00:26:40,000 --> 00:26:42,000 So if the pollutant is in really 826 00:26:42,000 --> 00:26:44,000 low levels, this isn't really 827 00:26:44,000 --> 00:26:48,000 the best way to analyze. 828 00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:50,000 However, we were looking at some 829 00:26:50,000 --> 00:26:52,000 health effects for some very 830 00:26:52,000 --> 00:26:53,000 significant chemicals and we 831 00:26:53,000 --> 00:26:55,000 were finding those in fairly 832 00:26:55,000 --> 00:26:58,000 high concentrations. 833 00:26:58,000 --> 00:26:59,000 That part wasn't too much of an 834 00:26:59,000 --> 00:27:00,000 issue. 835 00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:01,000 We had sample bottles that we 836 00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:03,000 shipped in that were sterile and 837 00:27:03,000 --> 00:27:05,000 acid washed. 838 00:27:05,000 --> 00:27:07,000 Another sort of problem that 839 00:27:07,000 --> 00:27:09,000 occurred is, I had to do all the 840 00:27:09,000 --> 00:27:12,000 analyses within 24 hours. 841 00:27:12,000 --> 00:27:13,000 Usually water samples, you can 842 00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:15,000 preserve them, but since we 843 00:27:15,000 --> 00:27:16,000 didn't really have any 844 00:27:16,000 --> 00:27:18,000 refrigeration, that became a big 845 00:27:18,000 --> 00:27:20,000 issue. 846 00:27:20,000 --> 00:27:21,000 So we tried to keep the samples 847 00:27:21,000 --> 00:27:23,000 as cool as possible. 848 00:27:23,000 --> 00:27:24,000 That just meant that we had to 849 00:27:24,000 --> 00:27:26,000 have multiple sampling trips, 850 00:27:26,000 --> 00:27:27,000 and so we were going out quite 851 00:27:27,000 --> 00:27:28,000 frequently to collect a small 852 00:27:28,000 --> 00:27:30,000 amount of samples, so then I 853 00:27:30,000 --> 00:27:31,000 could go back to the laboratory 854 00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:33,000 and analyze them within 24 hours 855 00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:34,000 for all the analytes. 856 00:27:34,000 --> 00:27:36,000 This made things a little bit 857 00:27:36,000 --> 00:27:38,000 more difficult and we probably 858 00:27:38,000 --> 00:27:39,000 could have done much more 859 00:27:39,000 --> 00:27:41,000 sampling if we wouldn't have had 860 00:27:41,000 --> 00:27:44,000 the problem of trying to get 861 00:27:44,000 --> 00:27:45,000 transportation to the sites as 862 00:27:45,000 --> 00:27:49,000 often. 863 00:27:49,000 --> 00:27:50,000 Let's start talking about some 864 00:27:50,000 --> 00:27:52,000 of the results. 865 00:27:52,000 --> 00:27:54,000 As I said, for large scale 866 00:27:54,000 --> 00:27:56,000 mining operations, we were 867 00:27:56,000 --> 00:28:01,000 looking for some key pollutants. 868 00:28:01,000 --> 00:28:03,000 First of all, I'm going to talk 869 00:28:03,000 --> 00:28:04,000 a little bit about sulfate, 870 00:28:04,000 --> 00:28:07,000 sulfur, and nitrates, which is 871 00:28:07,000 --> 00:28:10,000 this right here. 872 00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:12,000 And so here on this axis is 873 00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:13,000 concentration in milligrams per 874 00:28:13,000 --> 00:28:15,000 liter, you can say "parts per 875 00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:18,000 million" if you'd like. 876 00:28:18,000 --> 00:28:19,000 These are the ten sites that we 877 00:28:19,000 --> 00:28:21,000 focused our study on. 878 00:28:21,000 --> 00:28:23,000 Initially we sampled about 50 879 00:28:23,000 --> 00:28:26,000 different sites and then what we 880 00:28:26,000 --> 00:28:29,000 did is, we tried to weed out 881 00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:32,000 some of the sites and determine 882 00:28:32,000 --> 00:28:34,000 what might be the most effective 883 00:28:34,000 --> 00:28:36,000 and efficient way to utilize our 884 00:28:36,000 --> 00:28:39,000 facilities and our funding. 885 00:28:39,000 --> 00:28:42,000 We tried to focus on ten sites 886 00:28:42,000 --> 00:28:44,000 around the city, fairly close to 887 00:28:44,000 --> 00:28:46,000 large scale mining operations. 888 00:28:46,000 --> 00:28:48,000 Also, accessibility to these 889 00:28:48,000 --> 00:28:51,000 sites was a factor and also if 890 00:28:51,000 --> 00:28:52,000 we were allowed to sample or 891 00:28:52,000 --> 00:28:53,000 not. 892 00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:54,000 Sometimes the chief said, "No, 893 00:28:54,000 --> 00:28:56,000 you can't sample," and so then 894 00:28:56,000 --> 00:28:58,000 we couldn't do that. 895 00:28:58,000 --> 00:28:59,000 These are the ten sites that we 896 00:28:59,000 --> 00:29:00,000 picked. 897 00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:02,000 This first one here, UMaT, 898 00:29:02,000 --> 00:29:03,000 that's a bore hole that's 899 00:29:03,000 --> 00:29:05,000 actually on the college campus 900 00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:07,000 that people use for drinking 901 00:29:07,000 --> 00:29:10,000 quite often. 902 00:29:10,000 --> 00:29:12,000 And then these other sites. 903 00:29:12,000 --> 00:29:13,000 This is what we were sort of 904 00:29:13,000 --> 00:29:16,000 seeing and this will become more 905 00:29:16,000 --> 00:29:18,000 significant as I talk about some 906 00:29:18,000 --> 00:29:20,000 of the other results. 907 00:29:20,000 --> 00:29:23,000 In Akoon, Simpa, and Aboso, we 908 00:29:23,000 --> 00:29:26,000 were seeing significantly higher 909 00:29:26,000 --> 00:29:28,000 levels of sulfate and nitrate 910 00:29:28,000 --> 00:29:30,000 than the other sites, which were 911 00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:31,000 sort of what we were seeing as a 912 00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:34,000 baseline. 913 00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:37,000 Akoon, there was a lot of 914 00:29:37,000 --> 00:29:39,000 nitrate and this, as we found 915 00:29:39,000 --> 00:29:42,000 out by talking with some of the 916 00:29:42,000 --> 00:29:43,000 villagers, they had been 917 00:29:43,000 --> 00:29:45,000 actively blasting in that site 918 00:29:45,000 --> 00:29:47,000 quite often for the months up to 919 00:29:47,000 --> 00:29:49,000 when we were sampling. 920 00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:51,000 Another thing we wanted to know 921 00:29:51,000 --> 00:29:53,000 is if the nitrate was actually 922 00:29:53,000 --> 00:29:56,000 because of sanitation problems 923 00:29:56,000 --> 00:29:57,000 in the village versus the mining 924 00:29:57,000 --> 00:29:59,000 operations. 925 00:29:59,000 --> 00:30:01,000 That's very hard to determine 926 00:30:01,000 --> 00:30:02,000 because sanitation is, 927 00:30:02,000 --> 00:30:04,000 of course, an issue. 928 00:30:04,000 --> 00:30:05,000 There's no indoor plumbing, so 929 00:30:05,000 --> 00:30:08,000 normally latrines are used. 930 00:30:08,000 --> 00:30:09,000 However, we didn't find any 931 00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:12,000 bacterial contamination in this 932 00:30:12,000 --> 00:30:13,000 particular sample, which tells 933 00:30:13,000 --> 00:30:17,000 us that it's probably not fecal 934 00:30:17,000 --> 00:30:19,000 coliform bacteria. 935 00:30:19,000 --> 00:30:21,000 The nitrates might be coming a 936 00:30:21,000 --> 00:30:23,000 little bit from sanitation, but 937 00:30:23,000 --> 00:30:24,000 we think that it's mostly from 938 00:30:24,000 --> 00:30:27,000 the blasting, or at least that's 939 00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:31,000 what our assumptions came to. 940 00:30:31,000 --> 00:30:34,000 If we move on to cyanide, this 941 00:30:34,000 --> 00:30:35,000 graph looks really scary, but 942 00:30:35,000 --> 00:30:37,000 it's not, because the 943 00:30:37,000 --> 00:30:40,000 concentrations here on the axis 944 00:30:40,000 --> 00:30:41,000 are very, very low. 945 00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:43,000 Actually, pretty close to our 946 00:30:43,000 --> 00:30:46,000 limit of detection. 947 00:30:46,000 --> 00:30:47,000 The WHO guideline for cyanide 948 00:30:47,000 --> 00:30:49,000 is 0.07 milligrams per liter. 949 00:30:49,000 --> 00:30:50,000 As you can see with all of the 950 00:30:50,000 --> 00:30:52,000 sites, we are well below that, 951 00:30:52,000 --> 00:30:54,000 at least ten times, if not more, 952 00:30:54,000 --> 00:30:56,000 below the WHO guideline. 953 00:30:56,000 --> 00:30:59,000 Cyanide, very low levels, it was 954 00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:00,000 really hard to detect, as you 955 00:31:00,000 --> 00:31:01,000 can tell by some of the error 956 00:31:01,000 --> 00:31:03,000 bars here, just because the 957 00:31:03,000 --> 00:31:04,000 levels were so low and our 958 00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:06,000 equipment wasn't really capable 959 00:31:06,000 --> 00:31:10,000 of going much lower than this. 960 00:31:10,000 --> 00:31:11,000 That was good to see that we 961 00:31:11,000 --> 00:31:13,000 didn't see any spiking effects, 962 00:31:13,000 --> 00:31:14,000 at least for cyanide, for 963 00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:18,000 samples that we looked at. 964 00:31:18,000 --> 00:31:21,000 Mercury again is, as I said 965 00:31:21,000 --> 00:31:23,000 before, fairly hard to monitor 966 00:31:23,000 --> 00:31:26,000 in the environment. 967 00:31:26,000 --> 00:31:29,000 The WHO guideline for mercury, 968 00:31:29,000 --> 00:31:30,000 0.006 milligrams per liter, 969 00:31:30,000 --> 00:31:32,000 which is also 970 00:31:32,000 --> 00:31:34,000 this black line here. 971 00:31:34,000 --> 00:31:36,000 Our limit of detection for our 972 00:31:36,000 --> 00:31:39,000 instrument was, I believe, 973 00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:41,000 0.03 milligrams per liter. 974 00:31:41,000 --> 00:31:45,000 So this data is very hard to 975 00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:47,000 take and say anything about 976 00:31:47,000 --> 00:31:49,000 significant differences in 977 00:31:49,000 --> 00:31:51,000 sites, or about statistical 978 00:31:51,000 --> 00:31:53,000 comparisons. 979 00:31:53,000 --> 00:31:55,000 However, we did see something 980 00:31:55,000 --> 00:31:56,000 that was sort of interesting 981 00:31:56,000 --> 00:31:57,000 when we looked at it alongside 982 00:31:57,000 --> 00:31:59,000 our other sites. 983 00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:00,000 For example, Aboso, Akoon, and 984 00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:03,000 Simpa, again we were seeing a 985 00:32:03,000 --> 00:32:06,000 little bit higher levels than in 986 00:32:06,000 --> 00:32:09,000 the other water samples. 987 00:32:09,000 --> 00:32:10,000 We saw this pattern for a lot of 988 00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:11,000 different things that we looked 989 00:32:11,000 --> 00:32:13,000 at in these three particular 990 00:32:13,000 --> 00:32:14,000 sites. 991 00:32:14,000 --> 00:32:15,000 So research is still ongoing at 992 00:32:15,000 --> 00:32:18,000 those sites, at least, and we 993 00:32:18,000 --> 00:32:19,000 wanted to continue to see if 994 00:32:19,000 --> 00:32:25,000 there were some changes here in 995 00:32:25,000 --> 00:32:26,000 the mercury concentration 996 00:32:26,000 --> 00:32:27,000 because of small scale gold 997 00:32:27,000 --> 00:32:31,000 mining. 998 00:32:31,000 --> 00:32:32,000 As I said, we did do some other 999 00:32:32,000 --> 00:32:35,000 sampling, so this just gives you 1000 00:32:35,000 --> 00:32:41,000 a snapshot of some of the other 1001 00:32:41,000 --> 00:32:43,000 pollutants that we tested for. 1002 00:32:43,000 --> 00:32:45,000 We tested for molybdenum, 1003 00:32:45,000 --> 00:32:47,000 manganese, and lead. 1004 00:32:47,000 --> 00:32:49,000 We're probably most familiar 1005 00:32:49,000 --> 00:32:51,000 with lead. 1006 00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:52,000 Lead, of course, is fairly 1007 00:32:52,000 --> 00:32:54,000 harmful. 1008 00:32:54,000 --> 00:32:56,000 It's definitely harmful to 1009 00:32:56,000 --> 00:32:58,000 children as far as cognitive 1010 00:32:58,000 --> 00:32:59,000 development and it's also sort 1011 00:32:59,000 --> 00:33:02,000 of a neurotoxin. 1012 00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:04,000 So the WHO guideline 1013 00:33:04,000 --> 00:33:07,000 is listed here, 0.01. 1014 00:33:07,000 --> 00:33:09,000 All of the ten sites had levels 1015 00:33:09,000 --> 00:33:11,000 well above the WHO limit of 1016 00:33:11,000 --> 00:33:14,000 safety for drinking water, 1017 00:33:14,000 --> 00:33:19,000 which is very problematic. 1018 00:33:19,000 --> 00:33:21,000 Manganese, most of the sites, 1019 00:33:21,000 --> 00:33:23,000 again, had higher levels than 1020 00:33:23,000 --> 00:33:25,000 permitted by WHO. 1021 00:33:25,000 --> 00:33:26,000 We saw the same thing with 1022 00:33:26,000 --> 00:33:28,000 molybdenum. 1023 00:33:28,000 --> 00:33:30,000 This is really a problem and 1024 00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:33,000 although we cannot specifically 1025 00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:34,000 link this to the mining 1026 00:33:34,000 --> 00:33:37,000 operations, we can make a few 1027 00:33:37,000 --> 00:33:39,000 generalizations about why these 1028 00:33:39,000 --> 00:33:40,000 might be showing up in the 1029 00:33:40,000 --> 00:33:43,000 groundwater system. 1030 00:33:43,000 --> 00:33:45,000 As I said, because Ghana is sort 1031 00:33:45,000 --> 00:33:46,000 of a topical environment, its 1032 00:33:46,000 --> 00:33:48,000 water table is quite high. 1033 00:33:48,000 --> 00:33:50,000 Within about five to ten meters, 1034 00:33:50,000 --> 00:33:51,000 you'll actually find water if 1035 00:33:51,000 --> 00:33:53,000 you dig a hole, okay? 1036 00:33:53,000 --> 00:33:55,000 So these mining operations, of 1037 00:33:55,000 --> 00:33:56,000 course they're going far deeper 1038 00:33:56,000 --> 00:33:57,000 than that. 1039 00:33:57,000 --> 00:33:58,000 We're talking about hundreds and 1040 00:33:58,000 --> 00:34:00,000 hundreds of feet to do the 1041 00:34:00,000 --> 00:34:01,000 mining. 1042 00:34:01,000 --> 00:34:03,000 So we know that it's having some 1043 00:34:03,000 --> 00:34:05,000 sort of influence on the 1044 00:34:05,000 --> 00:34:07,000 groundwater system and we know 1045 00:34:07,000 --> 00:34:10,000 that as we change and expose 1046 00:34:10,000 --> 00:34:12,000 some of these minerals that 1047 00:34:12,000 --> 00:34:14,000 these elements are in, 1048 00:34:14,000 --> 00:34:16,000 we change the oxidation states. 1049 00:34:16,000 --> 00:34:17,000 We expose them to oxygen when 1050 00:34:17,000 --> 00:34:19,000 maybe they weren't exposed to 1051 00:34:19,000 --> 00:34:20,000 oxygen before. 1052 00:34:20,000 --> 00:34:21,000 Or we changed the pH of the 1053 00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:22,000 system because of acid mine 1054 00:34:22,000 --> 00:34:23,000 drainage. 1055 00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:26,000 So that will change some of the 1056 00:34:26,000 --> 00:34:28,000 solubility of these guys, and so 1057 00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:30,000 we might be able to see higher 1058 00:34:30,000 --> 00:34:32,000 levels of these sort of 1059 00:34:32,000 --> 00:34:33,000 contaminants in mining 1060 00:34:33,000 --> 00:34:35,000 operations. 1061 00:34:35,000 --> 00:34:36,000 However, that's sort of a leap 1062 00:34:36,000 --> 00:34:38,000 and there's no definite way to 1063 00:34:38,000 --> 00:34:42,000 really track this. 1064 00:34:42,000 --> 00:34:43,000 As far as lead, I can tell you 1065 00:34:43,000 --> 00:34:46,000 that about ten years ago they 1066 00:34:46,000 --> 00:34:48,000 stopped using leaded gasoline, 1067 00:34:48,000 --> 00:34:49,000 maybe a little bit more, ten or 1068 00:34:49,000 --> 00:34:51,000 fifteen years ago they stopped 1069 00:34:51,000 --> 00:34:52,000 using leaded gasoline, but it 1070 00:34:52,000 --> 00:34:53,000 still could be getting into the 1071 00:34:53,000 --> 00:34:56,000 environment, and for at least 1072 00:34:56,000 --> 00:34:57,000 the small scale and large scale 1073 00:34:57,000 --> 00:35:00,000 mining operations, they still 1074 00:35:00,000 --> 00:35:04,000 use lead batteries for lighting 1075 00:35:04,000 --> 00:35:07,000 in the mines. 1076 00:35:07,000 --> 00:35:08,000 The spent batteries are normally 1077 00:35:08,000 --> 00:35:10,000 just discarded in the mine when 1078 00:35:10,000 --> 00:35:11,000 they're finished and so that 1079 00:35:11,000 --> 00:35:13,000 could also be a factor with 1080 00:35:13,000 --> 00:35:14,000 lead. 1081 00:35:14,000 --> 00:35:15,000 However, like I said, we don't 1082 00:35:15,000 --> 00:35:20,000 really know. 1083 00:35:20,000 --> 00:35:21,000 A little bit of gloom and doom 1084 00:35:21,000 --> 00:35:24,000 there, sorry about that. 1085 00:35:24,000 --> 00:35:25,000 But in some sites we did find 1086 00:35:25,000 --> 00:35:27,000 that the water was actually 1087 00:35:27,000 --> 00:35:29,000 fairly good. 1088 00:35:29,000 --> 00:35:30,000 We did have some problems with 1089 00:35:30,000 --> 00:35:34,000 some metals, but in some cases 1090 00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:38,000 the water was close to safe for 1091 00:35:38,000 --> 00:35:40,000 drinking, that's what I can say. 1092 00:35:40,000 --> 00:35:43,000 We knew we had these problems, 1093 00:35:43,000 --> 00:35:45,000 we knew we had problems even 1094 00:35:45,000 --> 00:35:46,000 going in, though we couldn't 1095 00:35:46,000 --> 00:35:48,000 necessarily say what kind of 1096 00:35:48,000 --> 00:35:51,000 problems we had and what areas 1097 00:35:51,000 --> 00:35:53,000 we were looking at. 1098 00:35:53,000 --> 00:35:54,000 However, we really went into 1099 00:35:54,000 --> 00:35:58,000 this with a mindset of, well, if 1100 00:35:58,000 --> 00:35:59,000 we have these problems, how can 1101 00:35:59,000 --> 00:36:03,000 we find ways to help these 1102 00:36:03,000 --> 00:36:04,000 problems? 1103 00:36:04,000 --> 00:36:06,000 How can we make their drinking 1104 00:36:06,000 --> 00:36:07,000 water a little bit better? 1105 00:36:07,000 --> 00:36:09,000 How can we utilize local 1106 00:36:09,000 --> 00:36:12,000 resources and do some local 1107 00:36:12,000 --> 00:36:16,000 education to try to keep people 1108 00:36:16,000 --> 00:36:21,000 more safe? 1109 00:36:21,000 --> 00:36:24,000 Sand has been used, sand vats, 1110 00:36:24,000 --> 00:36:26,000 so basically, pouring your water 1111 00:36:26,000 --> 00:36:27,000 through a large container of 1112 00:36:27,000 --> 00:36:29,000 sand. 1113 00:36:29,000 --> 00:36:30,000 If it's very fine sand, it will 1114 00:36:30,000 --> 00:36:32,000 remove a lot of the particulate 1115 00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:36,000 matter, so the larger pieces of 1116 00:36:36,000 --> 00:36:37,000 junk that you might find in 1117 00:36:37,000 --> 00:36:39,000 there. 1118 00:36:39,000 --> 00:36:42,000 That can help purify your water. 1119 00:36:42,000 --> 00:36:45,000 But we also know clay has some 1120 00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:47,000 very interesting characteristics 1121 00:36:47,000 --> 00:36:49,000 that we might be able to utilize 1122 00:36:49,000 --> 00:36:52,000 for water purification. 1123 00:36:52,000 --> 00:36:54,000 Clay is, of course, the same 1124 00:36:54,000 --> 00:36:56,000 kind of clay you dig out of the 1125 00:36:56,000 --> 00:36:57,000 ground, and you can find it in 1126 00:36:57,000 --> 00:37:01,000 Ghana as well as clay soil. 1127 00:37:01,000 --> 00:37:03,000 Clays are sort of an interesting 1128 00:37:03,000 --> 00:37:07,000 thing, because clay's backbone, 1129 00:37:07,000 --> 00:37:09,000 or most clays, are aluminum, 1130 00:37:09,000 --> 00:37:11,000 silicon, and oxygen. 1131 00:37:11,000 --> 00:37:12,000 And these atoms come together 1132 00:37:12,000 --> 00:37:13,000 and they form the basic 1133 00:37:13,000 --> 00:37:16,000 structure of most clays. 1134 00:37:16,000 --> 00:37:18,000 Now, when these atoms come 1135 00:37:18,000 --> 00:37:20,000 together, what it does is, it 1136 00:37:20,000 --> 00:37:22,000 imparts a slight negative charge 1137 00:37:22,000 --> 00:37:23,000 on the surface of the clay 1138 00:37:23,000 --> 00:37:25,000 material. 1139 00:37:25,000 --> 00:37:29,000 So this means that the clays 1140 00:37:29,000 --> 00:37:31,000 then have a slight negative 1141 00:37:31,000 --> 00:37:34,000 charge to them. 1142 00:37:34,000 --> 00:37:36,000 The pollutants that I was 1143 00:37:36,000 --> 00:37:41,000 talking about, things like lead, 1144 00:37:41,000 --> 00:37:43,000 mercury, we talked about iron, 1145 00:37:43,000 --> 00:37:44,000 we talked about these transition 1146 00:37:44,000 --> 00:37:45,000 metals, many times when they're 1147 00:37:45,000 --> 00:37:47,000 dissolved in water they're 1148 00:37:47,000 --> 00:37:49,000 positively charged. 1149 00:37:49,000 --> 00:37:51,000 They become ions. 1150 00:37:51,000 --> 00:37:52,000 So plus one, plus two, plus 1151 00:37:52,000 --> 00:37:53,000 three, they have a slight 1152 00:37:53,000 --> 00:37:55,000 positive charge. 1153 00:37:55,000 --> 00:37:58,000 What we can start to think about 1154 00:37:58,000 --> 00:38:01,000 is, if we have some clay in a 1155 00:38:01,000 --> 00:38:04,000 flow-through water system and we 1156 00:38:04,000 --> 00:38:06,000 pour our polluted sample in, 1157 00:38:06,000 --> 00:38:08,000 maybe these ions will actually 1158 00:38:08,000 --> 00:38:09,000 be attracted to the clay because 1159 00:38:09,000 --> 00:38:12,000 they have a different charge. 1160 00:38:12,000 --> 00:38:17,000 Opposites attract in this case. 1161 00:38:17,000 --> 00:38:18,000 What we sort of started to play 1162 00:38:18,000 --> 00:38:19,000 with is different types of clays 1163 00:38:19,000 --> 00:38:22,000 that we found in the area. 1164 00:38:22,000 --> 00:38:23,000 We milled them a little bit 1165 00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:24,000 differently. 1166 00:38:24,000 --> 00:38:26,000 For example, we heated this clay 1167 00:38:26,000 --> 00:38:30,000 up in a kiln furnace to about 1168 00:38:30,000 --> 00:38:32,000 800 degrees to burn off all the 1169 00:38:32,000 --> 00:38:34,000 organic matter, and then we 1170 00:38:34,000 --> 00:38:37,000 crushed it down. 1171 00:38:37,000 --> 00:38:38,000 As you can see here, we just 1172 00:38:38,000 --> 00:38:40,000 used a simple water bottle that 1173 00:38:40,000 --> 00:38:43,000 can be found really anywhere in 1174 00:38:43,000 --> 00:38:44,000 Ghana. 1175 00:38:44,000 --> 00:38:45,000 This is actually a 1.5-liter 1176 00:38:45,000 --> 00:38:49,000 water bottle. 1177 00:38:49,000 --> 00:38:50,000 You can find these on the 1178 00:38:50,000 --> 00:38:53,000 markets for maybe about one cent 1179 00:38:53,000 --> 00:38:56,000 or so, if there's even a charge 1180 00:38:56,000 --> 00:38:57,000 at all. 1181 00:38:57,000 --> 00:38:59,000 I poked some holes in the bottom 1182 00:38:59,000 --> 00:39:02,000 and lined it with some cloth, a 1183 00:39:02,000 --> 00:39:04,000 few layers of regular cotton 1184 00:39:04,000 --> 00:39:05,000 cloth. 1185 00:39:05,000 --> 00:39:07,000 I put some sand in, then a layer 1186 00:39:07,000 --> 00:39:09,000 of clay, then another layer of 1187 00:39:09,000 --> 00:39:12,000 fine sand. 1188 00:39:12,000 --> 00:39:13,000 What we wanted to do is, we 1189 00:39:13,000 --> 00:39:15,000 tested a whole bunch of 1190 00:39:15,000 --> 00:39:17,000 different things. 1191 00:39:17,000 --> 00:39:19,000 We actually just sort of got to 1192 00:39:19,000 --> 00:39:20,000 the point where we were starting 1193 00:39:20,000 --> 00:39:22,000 to see some results, and so the 1194 00:39:22,000 --> 00:39:24,000 results I'm going to show you 1195 00:39:24,000 --> 00:39:27,000 are very preliminary. 1196 00:39:27,000 --> 00:39:28,000 I don't have any error bars on 1197 00:39:28,000 --> 00:39:29,000 them, however, they were 1198 00:39:29,000 --> 00:39:32,000 confirmed by another test method 1199 00:39:32,000 --> 00:39:34,000 of a laboratory in --. 1200 00:39:34,000 --> 00:39:37,000 So I'm fairly confident of the 1201 00:39:37,000 --> 00:39:39,000 results here. 1202 00:39:39,000 --> 00:39:40,000 However, we must keep in mind 1203 00:39:40,000 --> 00:39:41,000 that for the testing we were 1204 00:39:41,000 --> 00:39:43,000 using fairly high concentrations 1205 00:39:43,000 --> 00:39:46,000 of these different analytes. 1206 00:39:46,000 --> 00:39:48,000 It doesn't necessarily mirror 1207 00:39:48,000 --> 00:39:49,000 the real world, but we wanted to 1208 00:39:49,000 --> 00:39:51,000 sort of get an idea if this 1209 00:39:51,000 --> 00:39:53,000 would work at all. 1210 00:39:53,000 --> 00:39:55,000 In many cases, it did. 1211 00:39:55,000 --> 00:39:56,000 I was pleased to see that for 1212 00:39:56,000 --> 00:39:59,000 certain ions in solution, 1213 00:39:59,000 --> 00:40:00,000 cobalt, copper, etc., 1214 00:40:00,000 --> 00:40:02,000 lead, we were seeing a 1215 00:40:02,000 --> 00:40:07,000 decrease in the amount. 1216 00:40:07,000 --> 00:40:08,000 We have more investigation to 1217 00:40:08,000 --> 00:40:10,000 figure out whether that's 1218 00:40:10,000 --> 00:40:12,000 actually absorbing tightly onto 1219 00:40:12,000 --> 00:40:14,000 the clay or whether it's a very 1220 00:40:14,000 --> 00:40:16,000 superficial sort of thing where 1221 00:40:16,000 --> 00:40:20,000 it will start to rinse off in a 1222 00:40:20,000 --> 00:40:22,000 few minutes. 1223 00:40:22,000 --> 00:40:25,000 So that work is still ongoing. 1224 00:40:25,000 --> 00:40:26,000 Unfortunately, I'm not part of 1225 00:40:26,000 --> 00:40:28,000 the work anymore, but this was 1226 00:40:28,000 --> 00:40:30,000 at least something that we were 1227 00:40:30,000 --> 00:40:31,000 happy to see. 1228 00:40:31,000 --> 00:40:32,000 There were some other materials 1229 00:40:32,000 --> 00:40:37,000 that they're currently testing. 1230 00:40:37,000 --> 00:40:38,000 They mine a significant amount 1231 00:40:38,000 --> 00:40:40,000 of bauxite in that area and 1232 00:40:40,000 --> 00:40:41,000 bauxite can sometimes be used as 1233 00:40:41,000 --> 00:40:47,000 an absorbent. 1234 00:40:47,000 --> 00:40:49,000 They can also use charcoal. 1235 00:40:49,000 --> 00:40:50,000 If you think about activated 1236 00:40:50,000 --> 00:40:51,000 charcoal like with our Brita 1237 00:40:51,000 --> 00:40:54,000 filters, this is basically, 1238 00:40:54,000 --> 00:40:56,000 charcoal is charred vegetation. 1239 00:40:56,000 --> 00:40:59,000 It definitely would not have the 1240 00:40:59,000 --> 00:41:01,000 capacity of something like an 1241 00:41:01,000 --> 00:41:03,000 activated charcoal filter that 1242 00:41:03,000 --> 00:41:05,000 we have, but we know that 1243 00:41:05,000 --> 00:41:07,000 charcoal can absorb certain 1244 00:41:07,000 --> 00:41:09,000 pollutants and investigation is 1245 00:41:09,000 --> 00:41:10,000 sort of taking place with that 1246 00:41:10,000 --> 00:41:14,000 as well. 1247 00:41:14,000 --> 00:41:16,000 I just kind of wanted to finish 1248 00:41:16,000 --> 00:41:18,000 up here with a few different 1249 00:41:18,000 --> 00:41:23,000 things. 1250 00:41:23,000 --> 00:41:25,000 In this talk, it was sort of 1251 00:41:25,000 --> 00:41:27,000 just a snapshot of work that we 1252 00:41:27,000 --> 00:41:29,000 did over a couple of years, and 1253 00:41:29,000 --> 00:41:32,000 I was actually in Ghana for six 1254 00:41:32,000 --> 00:41:33,000 months in 2008 and six months in 1255 00:41:33,000 --> 00:41:37,000 2009 working on the project. 1256 00:41:37,000 --> 00:41:38,000 The faculty there, and I had a 1257 00:41:38,000 --> 00:41:40,000 couple of graduate students who 1258 00:41:40,000 --> 00:41:41,000 were part of the university, 1259 00:41:41,000 --> 00:41:42,000 were also helping me sample and 1260 00:41:42,000 --> 00:41:45,000 doing these analyses and are 1261 00:41:45,000 --> 00:41:47,000 hopefully still continuing to 1262 00:41:47,000 --> 00:41:49,000 utilize the equipment that I 1263 00:41:49,000 --> 00:41:51,000 left. 1264 00:41:51,000 --> 00:41:53,000 We know that mining is causing 1265 00:41:53,000 --> 00:41:55,000 some changes to the environment 1266 00:41:55,000 --> 00:41:56,000 in and around Tarkwa. 1267 00:41:56,000 --> 00:41:59,000 We at this point don't know the 1268 00:41:59,000 --> 00:42:00,000 extent. 1269 00:42:00,000 --> 00:42:02,000 the mining operations have 1270 00:42:02,000 --> 00:42:03,000 really only been exploding in 1271 00:42:03,000 --> 00:42:05,000 the last 20 years and as history 1272 00:42:05,000 --> 00:42:07,000 tells us, long-term 1273 00:42:07,000 --> 00:42:10,000 environmental damage can take 1274 00:42:10,000 --> 00:42:13,000 decades in order to understand. 1275 00:42:13,000 --> 00:42:15,000 But at least, even though Ghana 1276 00:42:15,000 --> 00:42:17,000 is sort of in its infancy when 1277 00:42:17,000 --> 00:42:18,000 starting to think about 1278 00:42:18,000 --> 00:42:19,000 environmental concerns, they are 1279 00:42:19,000 --> 00:42:21,000 making progress and they are 1280 00:42:21,000 --> 00:42:24,000 putting money and resources from 1281 00:42:24,000 --> 00:42:25,000 the mining companies into 1282 00:42:25,000 --> 00:42:27,000 looking at environmental 1283 00:42:27,000 --> 00:42:30,000 concerns. 1284 00:42:30,000 --> 00:42:32,000 Like I said, it's still very 1285 00:42:32,000 --> 00:42:35,000 slow and the socioeconomic 1286 00:42:35,000 --> 00:42:37,000 situation in Ghana is moving 1287 00:42:37,000 --> 00:42:41,000 along at a fairly slow rate, but 1288 00:42:41,000 --> 00:42:45,000 I'm hopeful and I'm expecting 1289 00:42:45,000 --> 00:42:47,000 that in a few years that we'll 1290 00:42:47,000 --> 00:42:49,000 have moved even further forward 1291 00:42:49,000 --> 00:42:50,000 in thinking about the 1292 00:42:50,000 --> 00:42:53,000 environment. 1293 00:42:53,000 --> 00:42:55,000 A few sites that we studied, 1294 00:42:55,000 --> 00:42:57,000 Akoon, Simpa, Aboso, had levels 1295 00:42:57,000 --> 00:43:00,000 of some chemical indicators that 1296 00:43:00,000 --> 00:43:01,000 we might be able to attribute to 1297 00:43:01,000 --> 00:43:03,000 large scale mining. 1298 00:43:03,000 --> 00:43:05,000 The mercury contamination was 1299 00:43:05,000 --> 00:43:06,000 also sort of fuzzy. 1300 00:43:06,000 --> 00:43:07,000 We don't have a really good 1301 00:43:07,000 --> 00:43:09,000 limit of detection for what we 1302 00:43:09,000 --> 00:43:10,000 were looking for with our 1303 00:43:10,000 --> 00:43:12,000 equipment. 1304 00:43:12,000 --> 00:43:13,000 However, we know that mercury is 1305 00:43:13,000 --> 00:43:14,000 used all the time by small scale 1306 00:43:14,000 --> 00:43:16,000 miners. 1307 00:43:16,000 --> 00:43:17,000 We do know that it's getting 1308 00:43:17,000 --> 00:43:18,000 into the environment. 1309 00:43:18,000 --> 00:43:19,000 Just because we can't stick a 1310 00:43:19,000 --> 00:43:21,000 number on it, I'm very confident 1311 00:43:21,000 --> 00:43:23,000 that there are environmental 1312 00:43:23,000 --> 00:43:24,000 concerns when we start talking 1313 00:43:24,000 --> 00:43:26,000 about the mercury contamination 1314 00:43:26,000 --> 00:43:28,000 in this area. 1315 00:43:28,000 --> 00:43:30,000 More work needs to be undertaken 1316 00:43:30,000 --> 00:43:32,000 not only to understand sort of 1317 00:43:32,000 --> 00:43:33,000 the chemicals and the pollutants 1318 00:43:33,000 --> 00:43:35,000 that are there, but also then, 1319 00:43:35,000 --> 00:43:39,000 now what do we do? 1320 00:43:39,000 --> 00:43:42,000 Rural Ghana is a developing 1321 00:43:42,000 --> 00:43:44,000 country and as I said, the 1322 00:43:44,000 --> 00:43:45,000 infrastructure is really 1323 00:43:45,000 --> 00:43:46,000 lacking. 1324 00:43:46,000 --> 00:43:48,000 So most people do not have 1325 00:43:48,000 --> 00:43:50,000 indoor plumbing. 1326 00:43:50,000 --> 00:43:51,000 They go to the bore hole for all 1327 00:43:51,000 --> 00:43:54,000 of their water needs. 1328 00:43:54,000 --> 00:43:55,000 There's a latrine, which is 1329 00:43:55,000 --> 00:43:57,000 sometimes sited fairly close to 1330 00:43:57,000 --> 00:44:00,000 the bore hole where everybody 1331 00:44:00,000 --> 00:44:03,000 uses and the population is 1332 00:44:03,000 --> 00:44:05,000 growing significantly because of 1333 00:44:05,000 --> 00:44:07,000 the mining operations, so I 1334 00:44:07,000 --> 00:44:08,000 believe the capacity of some of 1335 00:44:08,000 --> 00:44:10,000 these latrines and also the 1336 00:44:10,000 --> 00:44:14,000 water system is being taxed. 1337 00:44:14,000 --> 00:44:16,000 There really has to be a lot 1338 00:44:16,000 --> 00:44:17,000 more work done in the 1339 00:44:17,000 --> 00:44:18,000 remediation aspect, and of 1340 00:44:18,000 --> 00:44:20,000 course, it's not going to happen 1341 00:44:20,000 --> 00:44:22,000 overnight and there are a lot of 1342 00:44:22,000 --> 00:44:23,000 things we have to consider as 1343 00:44:23,000 --> 00:44:27,000 far as education on how to use 1344 00:44:27,000 --> 00:44:28,000 some of these remediation 1345 00:44:28,000 --> 00:44:30,000 technologies. 1346 00:44:30,000 --> 00:44:32,000 They have to be very low cost. 1347 00:44:32,000 --> 00:44:34,000 Most of the country lives below 1348 00:44:34,000 --> 00:44:38,000 the poverty line of $2 per day. 1349 00:44:38,000 --> 00:44:39,000 And they have to be local 1350 00:44:39,000 --> 00:44:41,000 because transportation 1351 00:44:41,000 --> 00:44:42,000 infrastructure is also a 1352 00:44:42,000 --> 00:44:45,000 problem. 1353 00:44:45,000 --> 00:44:46,000 In my opinion, that's really 1354 00:44:46,000 --> 00:44:48,000 where the work needs to be 1355 00:44:48,000 --> 00:44:50,000 moving and I'm happy to say that 1356 00:44:50,000 --> 00:44:53,000 the materials, the equipment and 1357 00:44:53,000 --> 00:44:55,000 materials that I used for my 1358 00:44:55,000 --> 00:44:57,000 project were then donated to 1359 00:44:57,000 --> 00:44:59,000 UMaT for the students to 1360 00:44:59,000 --> 00:45:03,000 continue to use. 1361 00:45:03,000 --> 00:45:04,000 They have students who are 1362 00:45:04,000 --> 00:45:06,000 interested in environmental 1363 00:45:06,000 --> 00:45:10,000 concerns with mining and so I 1364 00:45:10,000 --> 00:45:11,000 think that more data will be 1365 00:45:11,000 --> 00:45:15,000 coming through soon. 1366 00:45:15,000 --> 00:45:16,000 I want to make sure that I 1367 00:45:16,000 --> 00:45:18,000 acknowledge National Science 1368 00:45:18,000 --> 00:45:19,000 Foundation for the funding for 1369 00:45:19,000 --> 00:45:21,000 this project over two years, for 1370 00:45:21,000 --> 00:45:23,000 the Discovery Corps 1371 00:45:23,000 --> 00:45:25,000 post-doctoral fellowship, the 1372 00:45:25,000 --> 00:45:26,000 MRSEC Center for Nanoscale 1373 00:45:26,000 --> 00:45:27,000 Science, which was sort of my 1374 00:45:27,000 --> 00:45:28,000 home department while I was at 1375 00:45:28,000 --> 00:45:30,000 Penn State, and they were very 1376 00:45:30,000 --> 00:45:32,000 helpful as far as facilitating 1377 00:45:32,000 --> 00:45:33,000 the administration of this 1378 00:45:33,000 --> 00:45:36,000 grant, and definitely, sorry, 1379 00:45:36,000 --> 00:45:37,000 the University of Mines and 1380 00:45:37,000 --> 00:45:39,000 Technology. 1381 00:45:45,000 --> 00:45:46,000 Let's just get back to that 1382 00:45:46,000 --> 00:45:47,000 real quick. 1383 00:45:47,000 --> 00:45:48,000 Dr. Richard Amankwah 1384 00:45:48,000 --> 00:45:50,000 was kind of my faculty director 1385 00:45:50,000 --> 00:45:51,000 when I was there. 1386 00:45:51,000 --> 00:45:52,000 He's now the Dean of Students 1387 00:45:52,000 --> 00:45:53,000 at UMaT. 1388 00:45:53,000 --> 00:45:55,000 Fifi Quansah is a master's 1389 00:45:55,000 --> 00:45:56,000 student that I worked with 1390 00:45:56,000 --> 00:45:58,000 very closely. 1391 00:45:58,000 --> 00:46:00,000 He was actually helping with 1392 00:46:00,000 --> 00:46:01,000 the sampling and going out 1393 00:46:01,000 --> 00:46:03,000 to sampling sites and this work 1394 00:46:03,000 --> 00:46:04,000 has become part 1395 00:46:04,000 --> 00:46:06,000 of his master's thesis. 1396 00:46:06,000 --> 00:46:08,000 So thank you very much 1397 00:46:08,000 --> 00:46:10,000 and I will take any questions. 1398 00:46:10,000 --> 00:46:14,000 ( applause )