WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:01.000 cc 00:01.000 --> 00:02.000 >> Tom Zinnen: 00:02.000 --> 00:03.000 Welcome, everybody, 00:03.000 --> 00:04.000 to Wednesday Nite @ the Lab. 00:04.000 --> 00:06.000 I'm Tom Zinnen and I work here 00:06.000 --> 00:07.000 at the University of 00:07.000 --> 00:08.000 Wisconsin-Madison 00:08.000 --> 00:10.000 and for UW Biotechnology Center 00:10.000 --> 00:11.000 and for UW Extension. 00:11.000 --> 00:12.000 Welcome to Wednesday Nite 00:12.000 --> 00:14.000 @ the Lab. 00:14.000 --> 00:16.000 Tonight we have 00:16.000 --> 00:19.000 Joanna Skluzacek, the new 00:19.000 --> 00:22.000 state specialist in STEM, 00:22.000 --> 00:24.000 which is Science, Technology, 00:24.000 --> 00:25.000 Engineering, and Math, 00:25.000 --> 00:27.000 at the University of Wisconsin 00:27.000 --> 00:28.000 Extension. 00:28.000 --> 00:31.000 She's a 4H state specialist and 00:31.000 --> 00:33.000 I'm very much looking forward to 00:33.000 --> 00:35.000 getting to work with her over 00:35.000 --> 00:37.000 the next few months, next few 00:37.000 --> 00:38.000 years, because it's going to be 00:38.000 --> 00:41.000 great to have more science and 00:41.000 --> 00:42.000 technology, engineering, and 00:42.000 --> 00:45.000 math opportunities for 4H youth 00:45.000 --> 00:48.000 across Wisconsin. 00:48.000 --> 00:50.000 Joanna was born in Lonsdale, 00:50.000 --> 00:52.000 Minnesota and went to Mankato 00:52.000 --> 00:54.000 State. 00:54.000 --> 00:55.000 She got her PhD at the 00:55.000 --> 00:57.000 University of Wisconsin-Madison 00:57.000 --> 00:59.000 in 2005 in Environmental 00:59.000 --> 01:01.000 Chemistry and Technology. 01:01.000 --> 01:03.000 Then she went to Penn State as a 01:03.000 --> 01:05.000 post-doc during which time she 01:05.000 --> 01:08.000 spent a couple of years in Ghana 01:08.000 --> 01:10.000 as a National Science Foundation 01:10.000 --> 01:13.000 Discovery Corps member. 01:13.000 --> 01:16.000 She came back to UW-Madison, 01:16.000 --> 01:18.000 excuse me, UW Extension here in 01:18.000 --> 01:23.000 Madison on May 14 of 2010, and 01:23.000 --> 01:24.000 like I say, it's really great to 01:24.000 --> 01:27.000 have this and this greater 01:27.000 --> 01:29.000 capacity to serve young people 01:29.000 --> 01:30.000 and give them opportunities in 01:30.000 --> 01:35.000 science through 4H in Wisconsin. 01:35.000 --> 01:36.000 Joanna will be talking about 01:36.000 --> 01:38.000 water quality concerns and 01:38.000 --> 01:39.000 remediation strategies for rural 01:39.000 --> 01:41.000 Ghana in Africa, connecting 01:41.000 --> 01:44.000 science and society. 01:44.000 --> 01:45.000 Please join me in welcoming 01:45.000 --> 01:47.000 Joanna to Wednesday Nite 01:47.000 --> 01:50.000 @ the Lab. 01:50.000 --> 01:53.000 (applause) 01:53.000 --> 01:54.000 Oh, wait a minute now, 01:54.000 --> 01:56.000 I have to test it. 01:56.000 --> 01:59.000 (taps microphone) 01:59.000 --> 02:00.000 >> Joanna Skluzacek: Okay, 02:00.000 --> 02:02.000 I turned on my microphone so 02:02.000 --> 02:05.000 hopefully everyone can hear me. 02:05.000 --> 02:06.000 Thanks, Tom, and thanks, 02:06.000 --> 02:08.000 everyone, for coming this 02:08.000 --> 02:11.000 evening to hear about my talk. 02:11.000 --> 02:13.000 Again, I just started and it's 02:13.000 --> 02:14.000 really great to be back here in 02:14.000 --> 02:18.000 Madison as a 4H STEM specialist. 02:18.000 --> 02:19.000 I've been away for about five 02:19.000 --> 02:20.000 years at Penn State, so it's 02:20.000 --> 02:22.000 nice to be back. 02:22.000 --> 02:24.000 Today I am going to talk to you 02:24.000 --> 02:25.000 about some research that I did 02:25.000 --> 02:28.000 in Ghana, Africa, as Tom said. 02:28.000 --> 02:34.000 I did this as part of a National 02:34.000 --> 02:37.000 Science Foundation grant in 02:37.000 --> 02:38.000 collaboration with Penn State 02:38.000 --> 02:40.000 and the Center for Nanoscale 02:40.000 --> 02:42.000 Science at Penn State, so I just 02:42.000 --> 02:43.000 want to make sure I give credit 02:43.000 --> 02:44.000 where credit is due. 02:44.000 --> 02:45.000 That's where the funding came 02:45.000 --> 02:48.000 from. 02:48.000 --> 02:50.000 Today I'm going to talk a little 02:50.000 --> 02:51.000 bit about my experiences in 02:51.000 --> 02:52.000 Ghana and some of the water 02:52.000 --> 02:55.000 quality research that I had done 02:55.000 --> 02:56.000 and some of the things I 02:56.000 --> 02:58.000 encountered while traveling in 02:58.000 --> 02:59.000 Ghana. 02:59.000 --> 03:00.000 It was definitely a new 03:00.000 --> 03:01.000 experience for me and I learned 03:01.000 --> 03:02.000 a lot, and I'm happy to share 03:02.000 --> 03:04.000 that with you tonight. 03:04.000 --> 03:06.000 First I just want to sort of 03:06.000 --> 03:07.000 talk just a little bit about 03:07.000 --> 03:09.000 environmental research. 03:09.000 --> 03:10.000 I think everyone in this room 03:10.000 --> 03:11.000 probably has a pretty good idea 03:11.000 --> 03:12.000 that environmental research 03:12.000 --> 03:15.000 doesn't occur in a black box. 03:15.000 --> 03:16.000 There's a lot of other things 03:16.000 --> 03:17.000 you have to consider when you're 03:17.000 --> 03:18.000 doing environmental research, 03:18.000 --> 03:19.000 and definitely when you're doing 03:19.000 --> 03:21.000 environmental research in a 03:21.000 --> 03:22.000 totally new environment, as I 03:22.000 --> 03:25.000 was, coming from Pennsylvania 03:25.000 --> 03:26.000 and being trained in the United 03:26.000 --> 03:27.000 States and going to a developing 03:27.000 --> 03:29.000 country like Ghana. 03:29.000 --> 03:30.000 And so there were a lot of 03:30.000 --> 03:31.000 things that I tried to prepare 03:31.000 --> 03:33.000 very well for, some things I was 03:33.000 --> 03:36.000 really naive about, and I'm 03:36.000 --> 03:38.000 happy to say that this project 03:38.000 --> 03:39.000 was successful, but sometimes 03:39.000 --> 03:41.000 fairly stressful. 03:41.000 --> 03:43.000 And things you need to consider 03:43.000 --> 03:46.000 are sort of the cultural, the 03:46.000 --> 03:48.000 socioeconomic, which is a very 03:48.000 --> 03:49.000 large difference between here 03:49.000 --> 03:52.000 and Ghana, and then other types 03:52.000 --> 03:54.000 of rules and regulations that I 03:54.000 --> 03:55.000 wasn't quite aware of when I 03:55.000 --> 03:56.000 first got there. 03:56.000 --> 03:58.000 Luckily my time there was fairly 03:58.000 --> 04:00.000 long so I got to sort of work 04:00.000 --> 04:02.000 those things out. 04:02.000 --> 04:04.000 And what I did was, I did water 04:04.000 --> 04:06.000 quality research on water bore 04:06.000 --> 04:08.000 holes. 04:08.000 --> 04:09.000 And you can see those in these 04:09.000 --> 04:11.000 pictures right here. 04:11.000 --> 04:12.000 This is a very typical bore 04:12.000 --> 04:13.000 hole. 04:13.000 --> 04:15.000 You can see a cement structure 04:15.000 --> 04:17.000 and a pump, and here I am 04:17.000 --> 04:18.000 pumping the pump, and we collect 04:18.000 --> 04:20.000 water samples. 04:20.000 --> 04:21.000 And these are found in a lot of 04:21.000 --> 04:23.000 different rural villages in 04:23.000 --> 04:25.000 Ghana. 04:25.000 --> 04:26.000 For instance, here's another 04:26.000 --> 04:28.000 picture of that. 04:28.000 --> 04:29.000 So what am I going to talk about 04:29.000 --> 04:31.000 today? 04:31.000 --> 04:32.000 I am going to focus specifically 04:32.000 --> 04:34.000 on some environmental concerns 04:34.000 --> 04:36.000 in this certain region of Ghana 04:36.000 --> 04:37.000 called Tarkwa. 04:37.000 --> 04:39.000 I want to make it very clear 04:39.000 --> 04:41.000 that I am not an expert on 04:41.000 --> 04:44.000 Ghanaian government or Ghanaian 04:44.000 --> 04:45.000 culture in any way, shape, or 04:45.000 --> 04:46.000 form. 04:46.000 --> 04:48.000 I was trained as a scientist, 04:48.000 --> 04:49.000 but I can share with you some of 04:49.000 --> 04:51.000 the things I learned while 04:51.000 --> 04:52.000 traveling there. 04:52.000 --> 04:54.000 Primarily, I went there, and 04:54.000 --> 04:57.000 what was important as far as 04:57.000 --> 04:59.000 finding funding for this project 04:59.000 --> 05:00.000 was the significant gold mining 05:00.000 --> 05:02.000 operations that occur in the 05:02.000 --> 05:04.000 western region of Ghana. 05:04.000 --> 05:06.000 And so this is definitely a 05:06.000 --> 05:07.000 drinking water concern for the 05:07.000 --> 05:09.000 villages and I'll explain a 05:09.000 --> 05:10.000 little bit more about that as we 05:10.000 --> 05:12.000 go along. 05:12.000 --> 05:14.000 One of my project goals, or a 05:14.000 --> 05:15.000 project goal I'm going to 05:15.000 --> 05:18.000 discuss tonight, is, how can we 05:18.000 --> 05:20.000 determine the impact of mining 05:20.000 --> 05:22.000 on groundwater resources or 05:22.000 --> 05:24.000 water resources that villages 05:24.000 --> 05:26.000 are utilizing for drinking 05:26.000 --> 05:29.000 water, for all of their daily 05:29.000 --> 05:33.000 needs. 05:33.000 --> 05:34.000 And then I'm going to talk about 05:34.000 --> 05:35.000 some of the challenges that I 05:35.000 --> 05:39.000 encountered along the way. 05:39.000 --> 05:41.000 And I'm going to go into a lot 05:41.000 --> 05:44.000 of the sort of chemistry and 05:44.000 --> 05:46.000 analytical methods and talk a 05:46.000 --> 05:48.000 little bit about how I actually 05:48.000 --> 05:49.000 got some of the results, because 05:49.000 --> 05:51.000 it's been very different than 05:51.000 --> 05:52.000 maybe some of the talks you've 05:52.000 --> 05:54.000 heard here at Wednesday Nite @ 05:54.000 --> 05:55.000 the Lab, where researchers are 05:55.000 --> 05:58.000 doing work, say, at a UW 05:58.000 --> 06:00.000 laboratory. 06:00.000 --> 06:01.000 The facilities are quite 06:01.000 --> 06:02.000 different, as you might imagine, 06:02.000 --> 06:03.000 and so I can talk a little bit 06:03.000 --> 06:05.000 about how the methodology is 06:05.000 --> 06:06.000 different. 06:06.000 --> 06:08.000 I'm going to discuss my results 06:08.000 --> 06:10.000 and some of the remediation 06:10.000 --> 06:11.000 strategies that we worked to 06:11.000 --> 06:15.000 develop as we were going along. 06:15.000 --> 06:17.000 There was just one more thing I 06:17.000 --> 06:20.000 wanted to introduce before I get 06:20.000 --> 06:23.000 into the main bulk of my talk. 06:23.000 --> 06:25.000 This is mainly just to make sure 06:25.000 --> 06:26.000 that we're all sort of on the 06:26.000 --> 06:27.000 same page when I start talking 06:27.000 --> 06:29.000 about different things that are 06:29.000 --> 06:33.000 occurring in Ghana at this time. 06:33.000 --> 06:34.000 The big difference is between 06:34.000 --> 06:36.000 economic and physical water 06:36.000 --> 06:38.000 scarcity. 06:38.000 --> 06:40.000 As you might imagine, we have 06:40.000 --> 06:42.000 some water scarcity issues right 06:42.000 --> 06:44.000 here in the United States and 06:44.000 --> 06:46.000 this red indicates a physical 06:46.000 --> 06:47.000 water scarcity, and we see that 06:47.000 --> 06:49.000 in the western United States. 06:49.000 --> 06:51.000 Basically, there's not a lot of 06:51.000 --> 06:52.000 surface water, it doesn't rain a 06:52.000 --> 06:54.000 lot, it's a very arid 06:54.000 --> 06:56.000 environment and so we have water 06:56.000 --> 06:57.000 scarcity problems in the western 06:57.000 --> 07:00.000 United States. 07:00.000 --> 07:02.000 What's a little bit different 07:02.000 --> 07:05.000 for areas in Africa would be, 07:05.000 --> 07:07.000 it's an economic water scarcity. 07:07.000 --> 07:09.000 Most people, when they think 07:09.000 --> 07:12.000 about doing work in Africa as a 07:12.000 --> 07:13.000 continent that it's a very arid 07:13.000 --> 07:16.000 place, a lot of desert. 07:16.000 --> 07:18.000 That's really not the case in 07:18.000 --> 07:19.000 southern Ghana. 07:19.000 --> 07:20.000 Southern Ghana has a tropical 07:20.000 --> 07:21.000 climate, it rains all the time, 07:21.000 --> 07:23.000 it's a very high water table, it 07:23.000 --> 07:26.000 has a lot of rivers and lakes. 07:26.000 --> 07:27.000 However, there's economic water 07:27.000 --> 07:29.000 scarcity, meaning that there's 07:29.000 --> 07:31.000 not the infrastructure in the 07:31.000 --> 07:33.000 country to transport water, to 07:33.000 --> 07:37.000 purify water, to distribute it 07:37.000 --> 07:38.000 to the masses in a safe 07:38.000 --> 07:40.000 and easy way. 07:40.000 --> 07:41.000 So that's what we mean by 07:41.000 --> 07:43.000 "economic" water scarcity 07:43.000 --> 07:46.000 issues. 07:46.000 --> 07:48.000 I was in Ghana. 07:48.000 --> 07:49.000 This is the African continent, 07:49.000 --> 07:50.000 of course. 07:50.000 --> 07:52.000 Ghana is this little country 07:52.000 --> 07:53.000 right here. 07:53.000 --> 07:55.000 The equator actually runs right 07:55.000 --> 07:56.000 along here just to the south 07:56.000 --> 07:58.000 border. 07:58.000 --> 08:00.000 This is a close-up view, and I 08:00.000 --> 08:01.000 was in a town called Tarkwa, as 08:01.000 --> 08:02.000 I said. 08:02.000 --> 08:05.000 It's in the southwestern region. 08:05.000 --> 08:06.000 As I said before, there's a lot 08:06.000 --> 08:08.000 of water resources in Ghana. 08:08.000 --> 08:09.000 You can see here, it has an 08:09.000 --> 08:11.000 extensive river and lake system. 08:11.000 --> 08:12.000 This is the Volta region. 08:12.000 --> 08:15.000 Actually it gets quite a bit of 08:15.000 --> 08:17.000 hydroelectric power in this area 08:17.000 --> 08:20.000 because of the damming of the 08:20.000 --> 08:24.000 Volta River. 08:24.000 --> 08:25.000 In Tarkwa it's very close to the 08:25.000 --> 08:27.000 equator and like I said it has a 08:27.000 --> 08:28.000 tropical climate and it rains 08:28.000 --> 08:30.000 quite a bit, lots of vegetation, 08:30.000 --> 08:34.000 etc. 08:34.000 --> 08:35.000 When I went to work there, I 08:35.000 --> 08:37.000 actually got connected with a 08:37.000 --> 08:39.000 university called the University 08:39.000 --> 08:40.000 of Mines and Technology, or you 08:40.000 --> 08:42.000 might hear me refer to it as 08:42.000 --> 08:44.000 UMaT, which is actually 08:44.000 --> 08:46.000 stationed in Tarkwa, Ghana. 08:46.000 --> 08:47.000 It's basically a mining 08:47.000 --> 08:49.000 university because of all the 08:49.000 --> 08:50.000 gold and diamond mining that 08:50.000 --> 08:52.000 occurs there. 08:52.000 --> 08:53.000 But as we'll talk about, they're 08:53.000 --> 08:54.000 starting to become a little bit 08:54.000 --> 08:55.000 more aware of some environmental 08:55.000 --> 08:58.000 concerns and when I decided to 08:58.000 --> 09:00.000 write a proposal, I had some 09:00.000 --> 09:01.000 colleagues who had worked in 09:01.000 --> 09:02.000 Ghana before. 09:02.000 --> 09:03.000 I got connected with the 09:03.000 --> 09:05.000 professors and faculty at this 09:05.000 --> 09:07.000 university and they were real 09:07.000 --> 09:09.000 excited to have a US researcher 09:09.000 --> 09:14.000 come and do some work. 09:14.000 --> 09:15.000 Basically what I'm going to be 09:15.000 --> 09:18.000 talking about is mining industry 09:18.000 --> 09:20.000 impacts on water quality, or how 09:20.000 --> 09:22.000 we were trying to assess that 09:22.000 --> 09:23.000 with my project. 09:23.000 --> 09:25.000 This is to give you a little bit 09:25.000 --> 09:27.000 of idea of what is going on as 09:27.000 --> 09:31.000 far as mining industry in Ghana. 09:31.000 --> 09:32.000 So this is a graph that's taken 09:32.000 --> 09:35.000 from Dr. Richard Amankwah in 09:35.000 --> 09:36.000 2003. 09:36.000 --> 09:37.000 He was actually one of my 09:37.000 --> 09:39.000 collaborators at UMaT. 09:39.000 --> 09:41.000 Here you can see production, and 09:41.000 --> 09:44.000 this is either in gold ounces or 09:44.000 --> 09:46.000 this could be diamond carats. 09:46.000 --> 09:47.000 You can see diamonds that are 09:47.000 --> 09:48.000 two lines here. 09:48.000 --> 09:50.000 And the gold are the blue 09:50.000 --> 09:55.000 circles or blue triangles here. 09:55.000 --> 09:57.000 What we saw in Ghana, say, 09:57.000 --> 10:00.000 pre-1990 or sort of the early to 10:00.000 --> 10:01.000 mid '80s was, there wasn't a lot 10:01.000 --> 10:05.000 of gold production in the 10:05.000 --> 10:07.000 country. 10:07.000 --> 10:09.000 Ghana was going through a lot of 10:09.000 --> 10:10.000 transitions in the '50s and 10:10.000 --> 10:15.000 '60s, gaining independence. 10:15.000 --> 10:16.000 In the mid '80s, a very 10:16.000 --> 10:19.000 significant thing happened. 10:19.000 --> 10:20.000 The government implemented 10:20.000 --> 10:21.000 something called the economic 10:21.000 --> 10:23.000 recovery program. 10:23.000 --> 10:24.000 Now, this economic recovery 10:24.000 --> 10:26.000 program basically stated that 10:26.000 --> 10:28.000 now manufacturing and mining 10:28.000 --> 10:30.000 operations could be 10:30.000 --> 10:31.000 foreign-owned, or foreign 10:31.000 --> 10:35.000 investments would be taken to 10:35.000 --> 10:36.000 supplement or increase the 10:36.000 --> 10:38.000 mining and manufacturing 10:38.000 --> 10:40.000 capacity in the country. 10:40.000 --> 10:42.000 So what they started to see from 10:42.000 --> 10:48.000 about the beginning of the 1980s 10:48.000 --> 10:50.000 through current times is that 10:50.000 --> 10:52.000 they had a significant increase 10:52.000 --> 10:54.000 in the total production of gold. 10:54.000 --> 10:57.000 And this is mainly because of 10:57.000 --> 10:59.000 the foreign companies coming in 10:59.000 --> 11:00.000 and being able to put money and 11:00.000 --> 11:02.000 capacity into the mining 11:02.000 --> 11:03.000 processes. 11:03.000 --> 11:05.000 One thing I do want to mention 11:05.000 --> 11:07.000 is, so this is total gold 11:07.000 --> 11:11.000 production and this little line 11:11.000 --> 11:12.000 here is what we call "small 11:12.000 --> 11:16.000 scale" gold production. 11:16.000 --> 11:17.000 So small scale is also called 11:17.000 --> 11:20.000 "artisinal" gold production. 11:20.000 --> 11:22.000 It's been occurring for 11:22.000 --> 11:23.000 centuries in Ghana and a lot of 11:23.000 --> 11:25.000 other places. 11:25.000 --> 11:26.000 The difference between these two 11:26.000 --> 11:29.000 lines then is large scale mining 11:29.000 --> 11:31.000 operations. 11:31.000 --> 11:32.000 I'm going to be talking a lot 11:32.000 --> 11:33.000 about large scale mining 11:33.000 --> 11:34.000 operations, so I just kind of 11:34.000 --> 11:35.000 want to give you an idea of how 11:35.000 --> 11:41.000 much production is happening 11:41.000 --> 11:43.000 currently in Ghana. 11:43.000 --> 11:44.000 This continues to increase, 11:44.000 --> 11:46.000 definitely with the changes in 11:46.000 --> 11:48.000 the global economy. 11:48.000 --> 11:52.000 Gold is in high demand. 11:52.000 --> 11:54.000 So this picture here is a 11:54.000 --> 11:56.000 typical large scale gold mining 11:56.000 --> 11:58.000 operation. 11:58.000 --> 12:01.000 Tarkwa is a town about, I would 12:01.000 --> 12:04.000 estimate, a quarter of the size 12:04.000 --> 12:06.000 of Madison. 12:06.000 --> 12:07.000 That's about the size of the 12:07.000 --> 12:09.000 town. 12:09.000 --> 12:10.000 The population has grown 12:10.000 --> 12:12.000 dramatically because of these 12:12.000 --> 12:14.000 new mining companies, but 12:14.000 --> 12:15.000 currently there's about five or 12:15.000 --> 12:16.000 six of these large scale mining 12:16.000 --> 12:18.000 operations occurring in that 12:18.000 --> 12:20.000 area. 12:20.000 --> 12:21.000 The western region is where 12:21.000 --> 12:23.000 about 85% to 90% of Ghanaian 12:23.000 --> 12:25.000 gold is mined, and in the Tarkwa 12:25.000 --> 12:28.000 region a significant portion is 12:28.000 --> 12:30.000 mined. 12:30.000 --> 12:31.000 So this is a pretty typical 12:31.000 --> 12:32.000 mining operation. 12:32.000 --> 12:34.000 You can see the sort of spent 12:34.000 --> 12:36.000 ore slags, you can see the 12:36.000 --> 12:38.000 mining equipment. 12:38.000 --> 12:40.000 This is what it normally looks 12:40.000 --> 12:41.000 like. 12:41.000 --> 12:42.000 As I said, it's a very tropical 12:42.000 --> 12:43.000 area. 12:43.000 --> 12:46.000 This was just outside my house. 12:46.000 --> 12:47.000 This is what I looked at every 12:47.000 --> 12:49.000 day. 12:49.000 --> 12:50.000 Lots of vegetation, high 12:50.000 --> 12:54.000 rainfall. 12:54.000 --> 12:55.000 The mining operations, 12:55.000 --> 12:56.000 of course, you are changing 12:56.000 --> 12:58.000 the environment. 12:58.000 --> 13:00.000 They use slash-and-burn 13:00.000 --> 13:02.000 technology quite a bit, 13:02.000 --> 13:03.000 clear-cutting technology, to 13:03.000 --> 13:04.000 remove the vegetation and then 13:04.000 --> 13:10.000 really just start to dig. 13:10.000 --> 13:12.000 As you can probably expect, 13:12.000 --> 13:13.000 they're starting to see some 13:13.000 --> 13:14.000 significant environmental 13:14.000 --> 13:15.000 effects of these types of 13:15.000 --> 13:17.000 practices. 13:17.000 --> 13:18.000 Again, this is a large scale 13:18.000 --> 13:20.000 mine. 13:20.000 --> 13:22.000 You can see the ore coming here. 13:22.000 --> 13:24.000 One thing to talk about, when we 13:24.000 --> 13:26.000 talk about the difference 13:26.000 --> 13:27.000 between large scale mining and 13:27.000 --> 13:29.000 small scale mining, is the way 13:29.000 --> 13:32.000 gold is extracted from the ore. 13:32.000 --> 13:33.000 In large scale mining 13:33.000 --> 13:36.000 operations, cyanide is used to 13:36.000 --> 13:40.000 extract gold from ore. 13:40.000 --> 13:41.000 As we probably know, or I can 13:41.000 --> 13:43.000 refresh your memory, cyanide is 13:43.000 --> 13:47.000 a pretty potent poison. 13:47.000 --> 13:48.000 However, it's really good for 13:48.000 --> 13:50.000 extracting gold. 13:50.000 --> 13:51.000 These large silos, as you can 13:51.000 --> 13:56.000 see here, maybe I can... 13:56.000 --> 13:58.000 These silos as you see here 13:58.000 --> 14:00.000 are filled with cyanide. 14:00.000 --> 14:02.000 And you'll normally see about 20 14:02.000 --> 14:04.000 of these large silos on any 14:04.000 --> 14:06.000 typical large scale mining 14:06.000 --> 14:08.000 operation. 14:08.000 --> 14:09.000 They take the ore and put it in 14:09.000 --> 14:11.000 these silos. 14:11.000 --> 14:12.000 They mix it and they do their 14:12.000 --> 14:14.000 processing, and then the sort of 14:14.000 --> 14:16.000 spent liquid comes out these 14:16.000 --> 14:18.000 pipes. 14:18.000 --> 14:19.000 And I'm sorry I didn't get a 14:19.000 --> 14:21.000 better picture, but they didn't 14:21.000 --> 14:23.000 really like me to be where I was 14:23.000 --> 14:25.000 standing. 14:25.000 --> 14:30.000 They come out in sort of 14:30.000 --> 14:32.000 receptor pools, where then it's 14:32.000 --> 14:33.000 treated and released into the 14:33.000 --> 14:35.000 environment. 14:35.000 --> 14:37.000 In some cases it can be reused 14:37.000 --> 14:41.000 several times, the same cyanide. 14:41.000 --> 14:45.000 However, spills do occur and 14:45.000 --> 14:47.000 quite often you'll hear about 14:47.000 --> 14:48.000 large fish kills occurring 14:48.000 --> 14:49.000 because cyanide accidentally 14:49.000 --> 14:52.000 spilled into the environment. 14:52.000 --> 14:53.000 And people are very concerned 14:53.000 --> 14:54.000 because the spills are happening 14:54.000 --> 14:56.000 more frequently as production is 14:56.000 --> 14:59.000 increasing. 14:59.000 --> 15:01.000 Small scale mining is a little 15:01.000 --> 15:02.000 different process. 15:02.000 --> 15:04.000 Small scale mining is something 15:04.000 --> 15:05.000 we might think about when we 15:05.000 --> 15:09.000 think about in the early days of 15:09.000 --> 15:11.000 the United States when people 15:11.000 --> 15:12.000 went out to California to pan 15:12.000 --> 15:13.000 for gold. 15:13.000 --> 15:15.000 That's basically the process 15:15.000 --> 15:17.000 that these miners are utilizing. 15:17.000 --> 15:19.000 They're usually on a riverbed or 15:19.000 --> 15:21.000 streambed and they're panning 15:21.000 --> 15:23.000 for gold. 15:23.000 --> 15:26.000 However, gold is becoming harder 15:26.000 --> 15:28.000 and harder to get out of these 15:28.000 --> 15:30.000 deposits. 15:30.000 --> 15:32.000 The main way small scale miners 15:32.000 --> 15:34.000 extract the gold is to use 15:34.000 --> 15:36.000 mercury. 15:36.000 --> 15:37.000 Now mercury, again, is a 15:37.000 --> 15:39.000 significant health hazard. 15:39.000 --> 15:41.000 Some may say that it's more of a 15:41.000 --> 15:43.000 health hazard than cyanide just 15:43.000 --> 15:45.000 because of the way mercury can 15:45.000 --> 15:47.000 continue to deposit in the 15:47.000 --> 15:48.000 atmosphere. 15:48.000 --> 15:50.000 The way they use it does 15:50.000 --> 15:54.000 definitely lead to that. 15:54.000 --> 15:56.000 This is a typical miner and he 15:56.000 --> 16:00.000 has some mercury and some ore in 16:00.000 --> 16:01.000 a bucket. 16:01.000 --> 16:02.000 They don't use any protective 16:02.000 --> 16:04.000 equipment, so they usually just 16:04.000 --> 16:06.000 mix it with their hands. 16:06.000 --> 16:08.000 In some cases they'll use 16:08.000 --> 16:11.000 smaller receptacles with cloth 16:11.000 --> 16:12.000 and they'll actually, by mouth, 16:12.000 --> 16:14.000 they'll suck the excess mercury 16:14.000 --> 16:16.000 out of the cloth because it's a 16:16.000 --> 16:18.000 very important chemical for 16:18.000 --> 16:19.000 them. 16:19.000 --> 16:20.000 It's expensive and it's hard to 16:20.000 --> 16:21.000 come by, and so they'll suck the 16:21.000 --> 16:23.000 excess mercury out and actually 16:23.000 --> 16:24.000 spit it into a container to be 16:24.000 --> 16:26.000 used again. 16:26.000 --> 16:27.000 Once this process is done they 16:27.000 --> 16:29.000 actually fire it at a very high 16:29.000 --> 16:31.000 temperature and then burn off 16:31.000 --> 16:32.000 the excess mercury and end up 16:32.000 --> 16:34.000 with something like gold 16:34.000 --> 16:35.000 bullion. 16:35.000 --> 16:37.000 Now, since they're on the 16:37.000 --> 16:41.000 streams, this mercury can get 16:41.000 --> 16:44.000 into the water system. 16:44.000 --> 16:46.000 But what's also important is, 16:46.000 --> 16:47.000 when they burn off excess 16:47.000 --> 16:49.000 mercury, mercury will go into 16:49.000 --> 16:51.000 the atmosphere and so it can be 16:51.000 --> 16:53.000 transported to a very large 16:53.000 --> 16:55.000 distribution area, which then is 16:55.000 --> 16:57.000 a concern for almost everyone in 16:57.000 --> 16:58.000 the country. 16:58.000 --> 17:00.000 There are some significant 17:00.000 --> 17:01.000 things that we have to keep in 17:01.000 --> 17:02.000 mind. 17:02.000 --> 17:05.000 We wanted to take a look at 17:05.000 --> 17:06.000 maybe what are some of the 17:06.000 --> 17:08.000 impacts of these things, at 17:08.000 --> 17:12.000 least in the most recent times. 17:12.000 --> 17:15.000 This is a typical sampling site. 17:15.000 --> 17:18.000 Another thing, and this is not 17:18.000 --> 17:20.000 specific to Ghana, you'll see 17:20.000 --> 17:21.000 this in almost all developing 17:21.000 --> 17:23.000 countries, that accessibility to 17:23.000 --> 17:26.000 water is also problematic. 17:26.000 --> 17:27.000 There might be one bore hole 17:27.000 --> 17:29.000 well in the village and so 17:29.000 --> 17:31.000 that's where everybody has to go 17:31.000 --> 17:32.000 and they might trek some 17:32.000 --> 17:34.000 distance to get there. 17:34.000 --> 17:36.000 So people line up for basically 17:36.000 --> 17:38.000 hours for their turn at the bore 17:38.000 --> 17:40.000 hole pump to fill up their 17:40.000 --> 17:41.000 container to take it home and to 17:41.000 --> 17:44.000 use it for all of their uses 17:44.000 --> 17:45.000 during the day. 17:45.000 --> 17:47.000 Everything from drinking to 17:47.000 --> 17:52.000 bathing to laundry to cooking. 17:52.000 --> 17:54.000 Quite often, we sampled during 17:54.000 --> 17:56.000 the week and weekdays, usually 17:56.000 --> 17:59.000 about 9am to 6pm. 17:59.000 --> 18:01.000 We always saw children at these 18:01.000 --> 18:03.000 sites collecting water. 18:03.000 --> 18:06.000 That just is another thing that 18:06.000 --> 18:07.000 we need to keep in mind when we 18:07.000 --> 18:10.000 start talking about the 18:10.000 --> 18:12.000 relationship between access to 18:12.000 --> 18:14.000 clean water and accessibility to 18:14.000 --> 18:16.000 water, and also economic 18:16.000 --> 18:19.000 development of a country. 18:19.000 --> 18:21.000 We talk about children not being 18:21.000 --> 18:22.000 able to go to school because 18:22.000 --> 18:24.000 they have to do these chores and 18:24.000 --> 18:26.000 things at home. 18:26.000 --> 18:27.000 It's a big problem when we start 18:27.000 --> 18:29.000 talking about children 18:29.000 --> 18:31.000 developing and becoming literate 18:31.000 --> 18:34.000 citizens. 18:34.000 --> 18:34.000 These are some of the samples 18:34.000 --> 18:36.000 that we would see. 18:36.000 --> 18:38.000 It ranged anywhere from fairly 18:38.000 --> 18:42.000 clear to very turbid and most of 18:42.000 --> 18:43.000 the time people were drinking 18:43.000 --> 18:44.000 this water directly without any 18:44.000 --> 18:48.000 further purification. 18:48.000 --> 18:49.000 As I said, we were focusing 18:49.000 --> 18:52.000 mainly on the mining operations. 18:52.000 --> 18:53.000 There were a lot of different 18:53.000 --> 18:55.000 things we could have focused on, 18:55.000 --> 18:58.000 but this is one of the areas 18:58.000 --> 18:59.000 that we wanted to really look 18:59.000 --> 19:01.000 into. 19:01.000 --> 19:02.000 As I said, for large scale 19:02.000 --> 19:05.000 mining, what we wanted to look 19:05.000 --> 19:06.000 at is, we wanted to take a look 19:06.000 --> 19:07.000 at some cyanide concentrations 19:07.000 --> 19:09.000 and see if we could actually 19:09.000 --> 19:10.000 find any cyanide in the 19:10.000 --> 19:15.000 groundwater. 19:15.000 --> 19:16.000 Probably we would find low 19:16.000 --> 19:18.000 levels, if any. 19:18.000 --> 19:19.000 Cyanide breaks down fairly 19:19.000 --> 19:20.000 quickly, definitely in the 19:20.000 --> 19:22.000 groundwater. 19:22.000 --> 19:24.000 But we were also looking for 19:24.000 --> 19:25.000 other indicators such as 19:25.000 --> 19:26.000 sulfates from acid mine 19:26.000 --> 19:30.000 drainage, and nitrate. 19:30.000 --> 19:31.000 Nitrate initially wasn't one of 19:31.000 --> 19:34.000 our sort of priorities. 19:34.000 --> 19:35.000 However, we were starting to see 19:35.000 --> 19:37.000 significant concentrations of 19:37.000 --> 19:39.000 nitrate. 19:39.000 --> 19:41.000 When we think about testing our 19:41.000 --> 19:43.000 wells for nitrate in, say, the 19:43.000 --> 19:45.000 rural United States, we're 19:45.000 --> 19:47.000 normally looking for pollution 19:47.000 --> 19:50.000 caused by fertilizers, human 19:50.000 --> 19:52.000 waste, etc. 19:52.000 --> 19:53.000 And we thought that would be a 19:53.000 --> 19:54.000 concern here, but what we were 19:54.000 --> 19:56.000 actually finding was that it 19:56.000 --> 19:58.000 wasn't from waste or 19:58.000 --> 19:59.000 fertilizers, it was actually 19:59.000 --> 20:02.000 from blasting. 20:02.000 --> 20:04.000 They used a lot of explosives, 20:04.000 --> 20:05.000 of course, for the large scale 20:05.000 --> 20:06.000 mining. 20:06.000 --> 20:07.000 They would do a lot of blasting, 20:07.000 --> 20:11.000 it would make your house shake. 20:11.000 --> 20:12.000 It scared me almost every time 20:12.000 --> 20:14.000 it happened. 20:14.000 --> 20:16.000 So they use a lot of TNT and of 20:16.000 --> 20:18.000 course the "N" in TNT 20:18.000 --> 20:20.000 stands for "nitrogen." 20:20.000 --> 20:21.000 They also use some other types 20:21.000 --> 20:23.000 of explosives that have nitrate. 20:23.000 --> 20:24.000 So that also gets into the 20:24.000 --> 20:26.000 environment, so we were looking 20:26.000 --> 20:28.000 for those markers as well. 20:28.000 --> 20:29.000 The small scale mining, as I 20:29.000 --> 20:31.000 mentioned, mercury was something 20:31.000 --> 20:32.000 we wanted to take a look at. 20:32.000 --> 20:33.000 Testing for mercury is really 20:33.000 --> 20:34.000 difficult, so we sort of did the 20:34.000 --> 20:37.000 best we could. 20:37.000 --> 20:38.000 I can show you sort of our 20:38.000 --> 20:40.000 results a little bit later. 20:40.000 --> 20:42.000 We did look for other things 20:42.000 --> 20:43.000 since we were out sampling, we 20:43.000 --> 20:45.000 wanted to try to test for as 20:45.000 --> 20:46.000 many things as we could with the 20:46.000 --> 20:48.000 facilities that we had. 20:48.000 --> 20:50.000 So we did test for lead and some 20:50.000 --> 20:52.000 other transition metals, and 20:52.000 --> 20:54.000 bacteria, etc. 20:54.000 --> 20:56.000 I'm not going to discuss that in 20:56.000 --> 20:57.000 detail, but if you have 20:57.000 --> 20:58.000 questions at the end, feel free 20:58.000 --> 20:59.000 to ask. 20:59.000 --> 21:01.000 I'd be happy to talk a little 21:01.000 --> 21:04.000 bit more about that testing. 21:04.000 --> 21:06.000 Some of the challenges, as you 21:06.000 --> 21:10.000 might suspect, first of all 21:10.000 --> 21:12.000 would be analytical equipment to 21:12.000 --> 21:15.000 do this sort of testing. 21:15.000 --> 21:16.000 If you're living in rural Ghana, 21:16.000 --> 21:19.000 you have some very significant 21:19.000 --> 21:22.000 factors that you have to think 21:22.000 --> 21:23.000 about when you're doing 21:23.000 --> 21:25.000 analytical chemistry, one of 21:25.000 --> 21:27.000 which is a lack of electricity. 21:27.000 --> 21:30.000 Electricity would go out daily 21:30.000 --> 21:31.000 and would be out anywhere from a 21:31.000 --> 21:32.000 couple of hours to a couple of 21:32.000 --> 21:34.000 days. 21:34.000 --> 21:35.000 Not very good for 21:35.000 --> 21:36.000 instrumentation if they had the 21:36.000 --> 21:39.000 capacity to actually buy a 21:39.000 --> 21:40.000 spectrophotometer or something 21:40.000 --> 21:42.000 like that. 21:42.000 --> 21:44.000 Actually, my grant supported the 21:44.000 --> 21:49.000 purchasing of a lot of water 21:49.000 --> 21:51.000 reagent kits and also things 21:51.000 --> 21:53.000 like pH meters, dissolved oxygen 21:53.000 --> 21:54.000 meters, etc. 21:54.000 --> 21:56.000 Things that they didn't have 21:56.000 --> 21:58.000 access to at all, which was 21:58.000 --> 22:01.000 great, except it made budgeting 22:01.000 --> 22:03.000 a big headache. 22:03.000 --> 22:04.000 Because not only then are you 22:04.000 --> 22:06.000 looking at the cost of supplies, 22:06.000 --> 22:08.000 you have to purchase them from, 22:08.000 --> 22:11.000 well, the US or from Europe. 22:11.000 --> 22:13.000 They also had to be shipped to 22:13.000 --> 22:16.000 Ghana, Africa, so that was 22:16.000 --> 22:17.000 really difficult because we were 22:17.000 --> 22:19.000 looking at shipping costs that 22:19.000 --> 22:20.000 rivaled the cost of the 22:20.000 --> 22:23.000 materials we were using. 22:23.000 --> 22:25.000 So that was a significant 22:25.000 --> 22:26.000 expenditure and I could have 22:26.000 --> 22:29.000 utilized that money a lot 22:29.000 --> 22:30.000 differently if I wouldn't have 22:30.000 --> 22:34.000 had to spend it on the shipping. 22:34.000 --> 22:36.000 Also the timeline for materials 22:36.000 --> 22:37.000 to get there. 22:37.000 --> 22:40.000 Some chemicals that we used, 22:40.000 --> 22:43.000 some extraction acids and bases 22:43.000 --> 22:46.000 cannot be air shipped to Ghana 22:46.000 --> 22:48.000 or certain areas in Africa 22:48.000 --> 22:50.000 because of regulations, so they 22:50.000 --> 22:51.000 have to go by boat, which, of 22:51.000 --> 22:54.000 course, will take several months 22:54.000 --> 22:57.000 to however long it may take for 22:57.000 --> 22:59.000 the ship to come into port and 22:59.000 --> 23:00.000 then for the ship to be 23:00.000 --> 23:03.000 unloaded. 23:03.000 --> 23:04.000 Ghana still relies 23:04.000 --> 23:06.000 on the chieftaincy - 23:06.000 --> 23:11.000 (flubs pronunciation) 23:11.000 --> 23:12.000 Chief system! 23:12.000 --> 23:14.000 There, I got it out finally. 23:14.000 --> 23:16.000 And so every region will have 23:16.000 --> 23:18.000 sort of their own way of doing 23:18.000 --> 23:20.000 things. 23:20.000 --> 23:21.000 This process to ask permission 23:21.000 --> 23:23.000 from the chiefs can be very 23:23.000 --> 23:26.000 elaborate to very easy, but you 23:26.000 --> 23:28.000 don't really know that until you 23:28.000 --> 23:29.000 actually get there and you want 23:29.000 --> 23:30.000 to try to sample their bore 23:30.000 --> 23:32.000 holes. 23:32.000 --> 23:34.000 Community information and 23:34.000 --> 23:35.000 language. 23:35.000 --> 23:37.000 English is actually the national 23:37.000 --> 23:38.000 language and that was one of the 23:38.000 --> 23:39.000 reasons why I wanted to travel 23:39.000 --> 23:41.000 there. 23:41.000 --> 23:43.000 But as you can see from the last 23:43.000 --> 23:45.000 point, English isn't necessarily 23:45.000 --> 23:48.000 the best language for me either, 23:48.000 --> 23:50.000 but I wanted to gather some 23:50.000 --> 23:52.000 community information. 23:52.000 --> 23:54.000 Most people in the rural areas 23:54.000 --> 23:56.000 will speak their local language, 23:56.000 --> 24:01.000 which is Twi, which is not 24:01.000 --> 24:02.000 intelligible for me. 24:02.000 --> 24:06.000 So I also had to always have 24:06.000 --> 24:07.000 people accompany me when I went 24:07.000 --> 24:09.000 sampling for other reasons as 24:09.000 --> 24:10.000 well, but also the language 24:10.000 --> 24:13.000 barrier was fairly significant. 24:13.000 --> 24:16.000 Also, cultural stigma. 24:16.000 --> 24:18.000 For good reason they asked me a 24:18.000 --> 24:19.000 lot of questions about whether I 24:19.000 --> 24:21.000 was with the mining company and 24:21.000 --> 24:23.000 why anyone from the United 24:23.000 --> 24:25.000 States would come to rural Ghana 24:25.000 --> 24:27.000 to do water sampling. 24:27.000 --> 24:31.000 I can understand definitely 24:31.000 --> 24:32.000 their stigma. 24:32.000 --> 24:33.000 The mining companies have taken 24:33.000 --> 24:35.000 a lot from them in the last 20 24:35.000 --> 24:37.000 years and significantly before 24:37.000 --> 24:40.000 that. 24:40.000 --> 24:41.000 So it was also a matter of 24:41.000 --> 24:43.000 trying to get folks to trust me, 24:43.000 --> 24:45.000 to talk to me a little bit, and 24:45.000 --> 24:46.000 that of course took time as 24:46.000 --> 24:48.000 well. 24:48.000 --> 24:52.000 This is a pretty typical house. 24:52.000 --> 24:56.000 Thatched roofs, clay sides, so 24:56.000 --> 24:58.000 that's normally the dwellings 24:58.000 --> 25:00.000 that we were living in. 25:00.000 --> 25:03.000 Again there's some kids. 25:03.000 --> 25:05.000 The kids really thought it was 25:05.000 --> 25:07.000 pretty cool to watch me sample. 25:07.000 --> 25:09.000 In almost every picture I have, 25:09.000 --> 25:10.000 the kids are there. 25:10.000 --> 25:11.000 Sometimes I couldn't even get a 25:11.000 --> 25:13.000 picture because the kids were 25:13.000 --> 25:14.000 crowding all over. 25:14.000 --> 25:18.000 But it was cool, I loved it. 25:18.000 --> 25:20.000 The methods I used were not 25:20.000 --> 25:22.000 necessarily what you might think 25:22.000 --> 25:31.000 of as the most expensive or... 25:31.000 --> 25:34.000 high-end sort of equipment. 25:34.000 --> 25:35.000 I used something called the 25:35.000 --> 25:37.000 LaMotte test kit. 25:37.000 --> 25:39.000 These are basically surface and 25:39.000 --> 25:42.000 groundwater testing kits and the 25:42.000 --> 25:45.000 unit, as you can see here, 25:45.000 --> 25:47.000 is fairly simple. 25:47.000 --> 25:48.000 It's a fairly simple what we 25:48.000 --> 25:50.000 call spectrophotometer, which 25:50.000 --> 25:51.000 means that it detects color 25:51.000 --> 25:54.000 changes. 25:54.000 --> 25:55.000 So what we do is, we have our 25:55.000 --> 25:57.000 water sample and we put those in 25:57.000 --> 25:58.000 the little vials and we add some 25:58.000 --> 26:00.000 reagents. 26:00.000 --> 26:03.000 If that pollutant is present, 26:03.000 --> 26:05.000 the reagents will change the 26:05.000 --> 26:07.000 water a certain color and our 26:07.000 --> 26:08.000 instruments will be able to 26:08.000 --> 26:11.000 detect that color change. 26:11.000 --> 26:14.000 So if it's used very carefully, 26:14.000 --> 26:16.000 and we would always use 26:16.000 --> 26:18.000 standards to make sure that we 26:18.000 --> 26:19.000 were calibrating things 26:19.000 --> 26:21.000 correctly, we always tried to 26:21.000 --> 26:23.000 use check samples. 26:23.000 --> 26:24.000 If they're used carefully, you 26:24.000 --> 26:25.000 can actually get very good 26:25.000 --> 26:27.000 readings from low-cost 26:27.000 --> 26:29.000 instrumentation like this. 26:29.000 --> 26:30.000 As long as the levels of 26:30.000 --> 26:32.000 pollutant that you're looking at 26:32.000 --> 26:34.000 are fairly high. 26:34.000 --> 26:36.000 They don't have very good limits 26:36.000 --> 26:37.000 of detection, is what we call it 26:37.000 --> 26:39.000 in sort of the scientific 26:39.000 --> 26:40.000 community. 26:40.000 --> 26:42.000 So if the pollutant is in really 26:42.000 --> 26:44.000 low levels, this isn't really 26:44.000 --> 26:48.000 the best way to analyze. 26:48.000 --> 26:50.000 However, we were looking at some 26:50.000 --> 26:52.000 health effects for some very 26:52.000 --> 26:53.000 significant chemicals and we 26:53.000 --> 26:55.000 were finding those in fairly 26:55.000 --> 26:58.000 high concentrations. 26:58.000 --> 26:59.000 That part wasn't too much of an 26:59.000 --> 27:00.000 issue. 27:00.000 --> 27:01.000 We had sample bottles that we 27:01.000 --> 27:03.000 shipped in that were sterile and 27:03.000 --> 27:05.000 acid washed. 27:05.000 --> 27:07.000 Another sort of problem that 27:07.000 --> 27:09.000 occurred is, I had to do all the 27:09.000 --> 27:12.000 analyses within 24 hours. 27:12.000 --> 27:13.000 Usually water samples, you can 27:13.000 --> 27:15.000 preserve them, but since we 27:15.000 --> 27:16.000 didn't really have any 27:16.000 --> 27:18.000 refrigeration, that became a big 27:18.000 --> 27:20.000 issue. 27:20.000 --> 27:21.000 So we tried to keep the samples 27:21.000 --> 27:23.000 as cool as possible. 27:23.000 --> 27:24.000 That just meant that we had to 27:24.000 --> 27:26.000 have multiple sampling trips, 27:26.000 --> 27:27.000 and so we were going out quite 27:27.000 --> 27:28.000 frequently to collect a small 27:28.000 --> 27:30.000 amount of samples, so then I 27:30.000 --> 27:31.000 could go back to the laboratory 27:31.000 --> 27:33.000 and analyze them within 24 hours 27:33.000 --> 27:34.000 for all the analytes. 27:34.000 --> 27:36.000 This made things a little bit 27:36.000 --> 27:38.000 more difficult and we probably 27:38.000 --> 27:39.000 could have done much more 27:39.000 --> 27:41.000 sampling if we wouldn't have had 27:41.000 --> 27:44.000 the problem of trying to get 27:44.000 --> 27:45.000 transportation to the sites as 27:45.000 --> 27:49.000 often. 27:49.000 --> 27:50.000 Let's start talking about some 27:50.000 --> 27:52.000 of the results. 27:52.000 --> 27:54.000 As I said, for large scale 27:54.000 --> 27:56.000 mining operations, we were 27:56.000 --> 28:01.000 looking for some key pollutants. 28:01.000 --> 28:03.000 First of all, I'm going to talk 28:03.000 --> 28:04.000 a little bit about sulfate, 28:04.000 --> 28:07.000 sulfur, and nitrates, which is 28:07.000 --> 28:10.000 this right here. 28:10.000 --> 28:12.000 And so here on this axis is 28:12.000 --> 28:13.000 concentration in milligrams per 28:13.000 --> 28:15.000 liter, you can say "parts per 28:15.000 --> 28:18.000 million" if you'd like. 28:18.000 --> 28:19.000 These are the ten sites that we 28:19.000 --> 28:21.000 focused our study on. 28:21.000 --> 28:23.000 Initially we sampled about 50 28:23.000 --> 28:26.000 different sites and then what we 28:26.000 --> 28:29.000 did is, we tried to weed out 28:29.000 --> 28:32.000 some of the sites and determine 28:32.000 --> 28:34.000 what might be the most effective 28:34.000 --> 28:36.000 and efficient way to utilize our 28:36.000 --> 28:39.000 facilities and our funding. 28:39.000 --> 28:42.000 We tried to focus on ten sites 28:42.000 --> 28:44.000 around the city, fairly close to 28:44.000 --> 28:46.000 large scale mining operations. 28:46.000 --> 28:48.000 Also, accessibility to these 28:48.000 --> 28:51.000 sites was a factor and also if 28:51.000 --> 28:52.000 we were allowed to sample or 28:52.000 --> 28:53.000 not. 28:53.000 --> 28:54.000 Sometimes the chief said, "No, 28:54.000 --> 28:56.000 you can't sample," and so then 28:56.000 --> 28:58.000 we couldn't do that. 28:58.000 --> 28:59.000 These are the ten sites that we 28:59.000 --> 29:00.000 picked. 29:00.000 --> 29:02.000 This first one here, UMaT, 29:02.000 --> 29:03.000 that's a bore hole that's 29:03.000 --> 29:05.000 actually on the college campus 29:05.000 --> 29:07.000 that people use for drinking 29:07.000 --> 29:10.000 quite often. 29:10.000 --> 29:12.000 And then these other sites. 29:12.000 --> 29:13.000 This is what we were sort of 29:13.000 --> 29:16.000 seeing and this will become more 29:16.000 --> 29:18.000 significant as I talk about some 29:18.000 --> 29:20.000 of the other results. 29:20.000 --> 29:23.000 In Akoon, Simpa, and Aboso, we 29:23.000 --> 29:26.000 were seeing significantly higher 29:26.000 --> 29:28.000 levels of sulfate and nitrate 29:28.000 --> 29:30.000 than the other sites, which were 29:30.000 --> 29:31.000 sort of what we were seeing as a 29:31.000 --> 29:34.000 baseline. 29:34.000 --> 29:37.000 Akoon, there was a lot of 29:37.000 --> 29:39.000 nitrate and this, as we found 29:39.000 --> 29:42.000 out by talking with some of the 29:42.000 --> 29:43.000 villagers, they had been 29:43.000 --> 29:45.000 actively blasting in that site 29:45.000 --> 29:47.000 quite often for the months up to 29:47.000 --> 29:49.000 when we were sampling. 29:49.000 --> 29:51.000 Another thing we wanted to know 29:51.000 --> 29:53.000 is if the nitrate was actually 29:53.000 --> 29:56.000 because of sanitation problems 29:56.000 --> 29:57.000 in the village versus the mining 29:57.000 --> 29:59.000 operations. 29:59.000 --> 30:01.000 That's very hard to determine 30:01.000 --> 30:02.000 because sanitation is, 30:02.000 --> 30:04.000 of course, an issue. 30:04.000 --> 30:05.000 There's no indoor plumbing, so 30:05.000 --> 30:08.000 normally latrines are used. 30:08.000 --> 30:09.000 However, we didn't find any 30:09.000 --> 30:12.000 bacterial contamination in this 30:12.000 --> 30:13.000 particular sample, which tells 30:13.000 --> 30:17.000 us that it's probably not fecal 30:17.000 --> 30:19.000 coliform bacteria. 30:19.000 --> 30:21.000 The nitrates might be coming a 30:21.000 --> 30:23.000 little bit from sanitation, but 30:23.000 --> 30:24.000 we think that it's mostly from 30:24.000 --> 30:27.000 the blasting, or at least that's 30:27.000 --> 30:31.000 what our assumptions came to. 30:31.000 --> 30:34.000 If we move on to cyanide, this 30:34.000 --> 30:35.000 graph looks really scary, but 30:35.000 --> 30:37.000 it's not, because the 30:37.000 --> 30:40.000 concentrations here on the axis 30:40.000 --> 30:41.000 are very, very low. 30:41.000 --> 30:43.000 Actually, pretty close to our 30:43.000 --> 30:46.000 limit of detection. 30:46.000 --> 30:47.000 The WHO guideline for cyanide 30:47.000 --> 30:49.000 is 0.07 milligrams per liter. 30:49.000 --> 30:50.000 As you can see with all of the 30:50.000 --> 30:52.000 sites, we are well below that, 30:52.000 --> 30:54.000 at least ten times, if not more, 30:54.000 --> 30:56.000 below the WHO guideline. 30:56.000 --> 30:59.000 Cyanide, very low levels, it was 30:59.000 --> 31:00.000 really hard to detect, as you 31:00.000 --> 31:01.000 can tell by some of the error 31:01.000 --> 31:03.000 bars here, just because the 31:03.000 --> 31:04.000 levels were so low and our 31:04.000 --> 31:06.000 equipment wasn't really capable 31:06.000 --> 31:10.000 of going much lower than this. 31:10.000 --> 31:11.000 That was good to see that we 31:11.000 --> 31:13.000 didn't see any spiking effects, 31:13.000 --> 31:14.000 at least for cyanide, for 31:14.000 --> 31:18.000 samples that we looked at. 31:18.000 --> 31:21.000 Mercury again is, as I said 31:21.000 --> 31:23.000 before, fairly hard to monitor 31:23.000 --> 31:26.000 in the environment. 31:26.000 --> 31:29.000 The WHO guideline for mercury, 31:29.000 --> 31:30.000 0.006 milligrams per liter, 31:30.000 --> 31:32.000 which is also 31:32.000 --> 31:34.000 this black line here. 31:34.000 --> 31:36.000 Our limit of detection for our 31:36.000 --> 31:39.000 instrument was, I believe, 31:39.000 --> 31:41.000 0.03 milligrams per liter. 31:41.000 --> 31:45.000 So this data is very hard to 31:45.000 --> 31:47.000 take and say anything about 31:47.000 --> 31:49.000 significant differences in 31:49.000 --> 31:51.000 sites, or about statistical 31:51.000 --> 31:53.000 comparisons. 31:53.000 --> 31:55.000 However, we did see something 31:55.000 --> 31:56.000 that was sort of interesting 31:56.000 --> 31:57.000 when we looked at it alongside 31:57.000 --> 31:59.000 our other sites. 31:59.000 --> 32:00.000 For example, Aboso, Akoon, and 32:00.000 --> 32:03.000 Simpa, again we were seeing a 32:03.000 --> 32:06.000 little bit higher levels than in 32:06.000 --> 32:09.000 the other water samples. 32:09.000 --> 32:10.000 We saw this pattern for a lot of 32:10.000 --> 32:11.000 different things that we looked 32:11.000 --> 32:13.000 at in these three particular 32:13.000 --> 32:14.000 sites. 32:14.000 --> 32:15.000 So research is still ongoing at 32:15.000 --> 32:18.000 those sites, at least, and we 32:18.000 --> 32:19.000 wanted to continue to see if 32:19.000 --> 32:25.000 there were some changes here in 32:25.000 --> 32:26.000 the mercury concentration 32:26.000 --> 32:27.000 because of small scale gold 32:27.000 --> 32:31.000 mining. 32:31.000 --> 32:32.000 As I said, we did do some other 32:32.000 --> 32:35.000 sampling, so this just gives you 32:35.000 --> 32:41.000 a snapshot of some of the other 32:41.000 --> 32:43.000 pollutants that we tested for. 32:43.000 --> 32:45.000 We tested for molybdenum, 32:45.000 --> 32:47.000 manganese, and lead. 32:47.000 --> 32:49.000 We're probably most familiar 32:49.000 --> 32:51.000 with lead. 32:51.000 --> 32:52.000 Lead, of course, is fairly 32:52.000 --> 32:54.000 harmful. 32:54.000 --> 32:56.000 It's definitely harmful to 32:56.000 --> 32:58.000 children as far as cognitive 32:58.000 --> 32:59.000 development and it's also sort 32:59.000 --> 33:02.000 of a neurotoxin. 33:02.000 --> 33:04.000 So the WHO guideline 33:04.000 --> 33:07.000 is listed here, 0.01. 33:07.000 --> 33:09.000 All of the ten sites had levels 33:09.000 --> 33:11.000 well above the WHO limit of 33:11.000 --> 33:14.000 safety for drinking water, 33:14.000 --> 33:19.000 which is very problematic. 33:19.000 --> 33:21.000 Manganese, most of the sites, 33:21.000 --> 33:23.000 again, had higher levels than 33:23.000 --> 33:25.000 permitted by WHO. 33:25.000 --> 33:26.000 We saw the same thing with 33:26.000 --> 33:28.000 molybdenum. 33:28.000 --> 33:30.000 This is really a problem and 33:30.000 --> 33:33.000 although we cannot specifically 33:33.000 --> 33:34.000 link this to the mining 33:34.000 --> 33:37.000 operations, we can make a few 33:37.000 --> 33:39.000 generalizations about why these 33:39.000 --> 33:40.000 might be showing up in the 33:40.000 --> 33:43.000 groundwater system. 33:43.000 --> 33:45.000 As I said, because Ghana is sort 33:45.000 --> 33:46.000 of a topical environment, its 33:46.000 --> 33:48.000 water table is quite high. 33:48.000 --> 33:50.000 Within about five to ten meters, 33:50.000 --> 33:51.000 you'll actually find water if 33:51.000 --> 33:53.000 you dig a hole, okay? 33:53.000 --> 33:55.000 So these mining operations, of 33:55.000 --> 33:56.000 course they're going far deeper 33:56.000 --> 33:57.000 than that. 33:57.000 --> 33:58.000 We're talking about hundreds and 33:58.000 --> 34:00.000 hundreds of feet to do the 34:00.000 --> 34:01.000 mining. 34:01.000 --> 34:03.000 So we know that it's having some 34:03.000 --> 34:05.000 sort of influence on the 34:05.000 --> 34:07.000 groundwater system and we know 34:07.000 --> 34:10.000 that as we change and expose 34:10.000 --> 34:12.000 some of these minerals that 34:12.000 --> 34:14.000 these elements are in, 34:14.000 --> 34:16.000 we change the oxidation states. 34:16.000 --> 34:17.000 We expose them to oxygen when 34:17.000 --> 34:19.000 maybe they weren't exposed to 34:19.000 --> 34:20.000 oxygen before. 34:20.000 --> 34:21.000 Or we changed the pH of the 34:21.000 --> 34:22.000 system because of acid mine 34:22.000 --> 34:23.000 drainage. 34:23.000 --> 34:26.000 So that will change some of the 34:26.000 --> 34:28.000 solubility of these guys, and so 34:28.000 --> 34:30.000 we might be able to see higher 34:30.000 --> 34:32.000 levels of these sort of 34:32.000 --> 34:33.000 contaminants in mining 34:33.000 --> 34:35.000 operations. 34:35.000 --> 34:36.000 However, that's sort of a leap 34:36.000 --> 34:38.000 and there's no definite way to 34:38.000 --> 34:42.000 really track this. 34:42.000 --> 34:43.000 As far as lead, I can tell you 34:43.000 --> 34:46.000 that about ten years ago they 34:46.000 --> 34:48.000 stopped using leaded gasoline, 34:48.000 --> 34:49.000 maybe a little bit more, ten or 34:49.000 --> 34:51.000 fifteen years ago they stopped 34:51.000 --> 34:52.000 using leaded gasoline, but it 34:52.000 --> 34:53.000 still could be getting into the 34:53.000 --> 34:56.000 environment, and for at least 34:56.000 --> 34:57.000 the small scale and large scale 34:57.000 --> 35:00.000 mining operations, they still 35:00.000 --> 35:04.000 use lead batteries for lighting 35:04.000 --> 35:07.000 in the mines. 35:07.000 --> 35:08.000 The spent batteries are normally 35:08.000 --> 35:10.000 just discarded in the mine when 35:10.000 --> 35:11.000 they're finished and so that 35:11.000 --> 35:13.000 could also be a factor with 35:13.000 --> 35:14.000 lead. 35:14.000 --> 35:15.000 However, like I said, we don't 35:15.000 --> 35:20.000 really know. 35:20.000 --> 35:21.000 A little bit of gloom and doom 35:21.000 --> 35:24.000 there, sorry about that. 35:24.000 --> 35:25.000 But in some sites we did find 35:25.000 --> 35:27.000 that the water was actually 35:27.000 --> 35:29.000 fairly good. 35:29.000 --> 35:30.000 We did have some problems with 35:30.000 --> 35:34.000 some metals, but in some cases 35:34.000 --> 35:38.000 the water was close to safe for 35:38.000 --> 35:40.000 drinking, that's what I can say. 35:40.000 --> 35:43.000 We knew we had these problems, 35:43.000 --> 35:45.000 we knew we had problems even 35:45.000 --> 35:46.000 going in, though we couldn't 35:46.000 --> 35:48.000 necessarily say what kind of 35:48.000 --> 35:51.000 problems we had and what areas 35:51.000 --> 35:53.000 we were looking at. 35:53.000 --> 35:54.000 However, we really went into 35:54.000 --> 35:58.000 this with a mindset of, well, if 35:58.000 --> 35:59.000 we have these problems, how can 35:59.000 --> 36:03.000 we find ways to help these 36:03.000 --> 36:04.000 problems? 36:04.000 --> 36:06.000 How can we make their drinking 36:06.000 --> 36:07.000 water a little bit better? 36:07.000 --> 36:09.000 How can we utilize local 36:09.000 --> 36:12.000 resources and do some local 36:12.000 --> 36:16.000 education to try to keep people 36:16.000 --> 36:21.000 more safe? 36:21.000 --> 36:24.000 Sand has been used, sand vats, 36:24.000 --> 36:26.000 so basically, pouring your water 36:26.000 --> 36:27.000 through a large container of 36:27.000 --> 36:29.000 sand. 36:29.000 --> 36:30.000 If it's very fine sand, it will 36:30.000 --> 36:32.000 remove a lot of the particulate 36:32.000 --> 36:36.000 matter, so the larger pieces of 36:36.000 --> 36:37.000 junk that you might find in 36:37.000 --> 36:39.000 there. 36:39.000 --> 36:42.000 That can help purify your water. 36:42.000 --> 36:45.000 But we also know clay has some 36:45.000 --> 36:47.000 very interesting characteristics 36:47.000 --> 36:49.000 that we might be able to utilize 36:49.000 --> 36:52.000 for water purification. 36:52.000 --> 36:54.000 Clay is, of course, the same 36:54.000 --> 36:56.000 kind of clay you dig out of the 36:56.000 --> 36:57.000 ground, and you can find it in 36:57.000 --> 37:01.000 Ghana as well as clay soil. 37:01.000 --> 37:03.000 Clays are sort of an interesting 37:03.000 --> 37:07.000 thing, because clay's backbone, 37:07.000 --> 37:09.000 or most clays, are aluminum, 37:09.000 --> 37:11.000 silicon, and oxygen. 37:11.000 --> 37:12.000 And these atoms come together 37:12.000 --> 37:13.000 and they form the basic 37:13.000 --> 37:16.000 structure of most clays. 37:16.000 --> 37:18.000 Now, when these atoms come 37:18.000 --> 37:20.000 together, what it does is, it 37:20.000 --> 37:22.000 imparts a slight negative charge 37:22.000 --> 37:23.000 on the surface of the clay 37:23.000 --> 37:25.000 material. 37:25.000 --> 37:29.000 So this means that the clays 37:29.000 --> 37:31.000 then have a slight negative 37:31.000 --> 37:34.000 charge to them. 37:34.000 --> 37:36.000 The pollutants that I was 37:36.000 --> 37:41.000 talking about, things like lead, 37:41.000 --> 37:43.000 mercury, we talked about iron, 37:43.000 --> 37:44.000 we talked about these transition 37:44.000 --> 37:45.000 metals, many times when they're 37:45.000 --> 37:47.000 dissolved in water they're 37:47.000 --> 37:49.000 positively charged. 37:49.000 --> 37:51.000 They become ions. 37:51.000 --> 37:52.000 So plus one, plus two, plus 37:52.000 --> 37:53.000 three, they have a slight 37:53.000 --> 37:55.000 positive charge. 37:55.000 --> 37:58.000 What we can start to think about 37:58.000 --> 38:01.000 is, if we have some clay in a 38:01.000 --> 38:04.000 flow-through water system and we 38:04.000 --> 38:06.000 pour our polluted sample in, 38:06.000 --> 38:08.000 maybe these ions will actually 38:08.000 --> 38:09.000 be attracted to the clay because 38:09.000 --> 38:12.000 they have a different charge. 38:12.000 --> 38:17.000 Opposites attract in this case. 38:17.000 --> 38:18.000 What we sort of started to play 38:18.000 --> 38:19.000 with is different types of clays 38:19.000 --> 38:22.000 that we found in the area. 38:22.000 --> 38:23.000 We milled them a little bit 38:23.000 --> 38:24.000 differently. 38:24.000 --> 38:26.000 For example, we heated this clay 38:26.000 --> 38:30.000 up in a kiln furnace to about 38:30.000 --> 38:32.000 800 degrees to burn off all the 38:32.000 --> 38:34.000 organic matter, and then we 38:34.000 --> 38:37.000 crushed it down. 38:37.000 --> 38:38.000 As you can see here, we just 38:38.000 --> 38:40.000 used a simple water bottle that 38:40.000 --> 38:43.000 can be found really anywhere in 38:43.000 --> 38:44.000 Ghana. 38:44.000 --> 38:45.000 This is actually a 1.5-liter 38:45.000 --> 38:49.000 water bottle. 38:49.000 --> 38:50.000 You can find these on the 38:50.000 --> 38:53.000 markets for maybe about one cent 38:53.000 --> 38:56.000 or so, if there's even a charge 38:56.000 --> 38:57.000 at all. 38:57.000 --> 38:59.000 I poked some holes in the bottom 38:59.000 --> 39:02.000 and lined it with some cloth, a 39:02.000 --> 39:04.000 few layers of regular cotton 39:04.000 --> 39:05.000 cloth. 39:05.000 --> 39:07.000 I put some sand in, then a layer 39:07.000 --> 39:09.000 of clay, then another layer of 39:09.000 --> 39:12.000 fine sand. 39:12.000 --> 39:13.000 What we wanted to do is, we 39:13.000 --> 39:15.000 tested a whole bunch of 39:15.000 --> 39:17.000 different things. 39:17.000 --> 39:19.000 We actually just sort of got to 39:19.000 --> 39:20.000 the point where we were starting 39:20.000 --> 39:22.000 to see some results, and so the 39:22.000 --> 39:24.000 results I'm going to show you 39:24.000 --> 39:27.000 are very preliminary. 39:27.000 --> 39:28.000 I don't have any error bars on 39:28.000 --> 39:29.000 them, however, they were 39:29.000 --> 39:32.000 confirmed by another test method 39:32.000 --> 39:34.000 of a laboratory in --. 39:34.000 --> 39:37.000 So I'm fairly confident of the 39:37.000 --> 39:39.000 results here. 39:39.000 --> 39:40.000 However, we must keep in mind 39:40.000 --> 39:41.000 that for the testing we were 39:41.000 --> 39:43.000 using fairly high concentrations 39:43.000 --> 39:46.000 of these different analytes. 39:46.000 --> 39:48.000 It doesn't necessarily mirror 39:48.000 --> 39:49.000 the real world, but we wanted to 39:49.000 --> 39:51.000 sort of get an idea if this 39:51.000 --> 39:53.000 would work at all. 39:53.000 --> 39:55.000 In many cases, it did. 39:55.000 --> 39:56.000 I was pleased to see that for 39:56.000 --> 39:59.000 certain ions in solution, 39:59.000 --> 40:00.000 cobalt, copper, etc., 40:00.000 --> 40:02.000 lead, we were seeing a 40:02.000 --> 40:07.000 decrease in the amount. 40:07.000 --> 40:08.000 We have more investigation to 40:08.000 --> 40:10.000 figure out whether that's 40:10.000 --> 40:12.000 actually absorbing tightly onto 40:12.000 --> 40:14.000 the clay or whether it's a very 40:14.000 --> 40:16.000 superficial sort of thing where 40:16.000 --> 40:20.000 it will start to rinse off in a 40:20.000 --> 40:22.000 few minutes. 40:22.000 --> 40:25.000 So that work is still ongoing. 40:25.000 --> 40:26.000 Unfortunately, I'm not part of 40:26.000 --> 40:28.000 the work anymore, but this was 40:28.000 --> 40:30.000 at least something that we were 40:30.000 --> 40:31.000 happy to see. 40:31.000 --> 40:32.000 There were some other materials 40:32.000 --> 40:37.000 that they're currently testing. 40:37.000 --> 40:38.000 They mine a significant amount 40:38.000 --> 40:40.000 of bauxite in that area and 40:40.000 --> 40:41.000 bauxite can sometimes be used as 40:41.000 --> 40:47.000 an absorbent. 40:47.000 --> 40:49.000 They can also use charcoal. 40:49.000 --> 40:50.000 If you think about activated 40:50.000 --> 40:51.000 charcoal like with our Brita 40:51.000 --> 40:54.000 filters, this is basically, 40:54.000 --> 40:56.000 charcoal is charred vegetation. 40:56.000 --> 40:59.000 It definitely would not have the 40:59.000 --> 41:01.000 capacity of something like an 41:01.000 --> 41:03.000 activated charcoal filter that 41:03.000 --> 41:05.000 we have, but we know that 41:05.000 --> 41:07.000 charcoal can absorb certain 41:07.000 --> 41:09.000 pollutants and investigation is 41:09.000 --> 41:10.000 sort of taking place with that 41:10.000 --> 41:14.000 as well. 41:14.000 --> 41:16.000 I just kind of wanted to finish 41:16.000 --> 41:18.000 up here with a few different 41:18.000 --> 41:23.000 things. 41:23.000 --> 41:25.000 In this talk, it was sort of 41:25.000 --> 41:27.000 just a snapshot of work that we 41:27.000 --> 41:29.000 did over a couple of years, and 41:29.000 --> 41:32.000 I was actually in Ghana for six 41:32.000 --> 41:33.000 months in 2008 and six months in 41:33.000 --> 41:37.000 2009 working on the project. 41:37.000 --> 41:38.000 The faculty there, and I had a 41:38.000 --> 41:40.000 couple of graduate students who 41:40.000 --> 41:41.000 were part of the university, 41:41.000 --> 41:42.000 were also helping me sample and 41:42.000 --> 41:45.000 doing these analyses and are 41:45.000 --> 41:47.000 hopefully still continuing to 41:47.000 --> 41:49.000 utilize the equipment that I 41:49.000 --> 41:51.000 left. 41:51.000 --> 41:53.000 We know that mining is causing 41:53.000 --> 41:55.000 some changes to the environment 41:55.000 --> 41:56.000 in and around Tarkwa. 41:56.000 --> 41:59.000 We at this point don't know the 41:59.000 --> 42:00.000 extent. 42:00.000 --> 42:02.000 the mining operations have 42:02.000 --> 42:03.000 really only been exploding in 42:03.000 --> 42:05.000 the last 20 years and as history 42:05.000 --> 42:07.000 tells us, long-term 42:07.000 --> 42:10.000 environmental damage can take 42:10.000 --> 42:13.000 decades in order to understand. 42:13.000 --> 42:15.000 But at least, even though Ghana 42:15.000 --> 42:17.000 is sort of in its infancy when 42:17.000 --> 42:18.000 starting to think about 42:18.000 --> 42:19.000 environmental concerns, they are 42:19.000 --> 42:21.000 making progress and they are 42:21.000 --> 42:24.000 putting money and resources from 42:24.000 --> 42:25.000 the mining companies into 42:25.000 --> 42:27.000 looking at environmental 42:27.000 --> 42:30.000 concerns. 42:30.000 --> 42:32.000 Like I said, it's still very 42:32.000 --> 42:35.000 slow and the socioeconomic 42:35.000 --> 42:37.000 situation in Ghana is moving 42:37.000 --> 42:41.000 along at a fairly slow rate, but 42:41.000 --> 42:45.000 I'm hopeful and I'm expecting 42:45.000 --> 42:47.000 that in a few years that we'll 42:47.000 --> 42:49.000 have moved even further forward 42:49.000 --> 42:50.000 in thinking about the 42:50.000 --> 42:53.000 environment. 42:53.000 --> 42:55.000 A few sites that we studied, 42:55.000 --> 42:57.000 Akoon, Simpa, Aboso, had levels 42:57.000 --> 43:00.000 of some chemical indicators that 43:00.000 --> 43:01.000 we might be able to attribute to 43:01.000 --> 43:03.000 large scale mining. 43:03.000 --> 43:05.000 The mercury contamination was 43:05.000 --> 43:06.000 also sort of fuzzy. 43:06.000 --> 43:07.000 We don't have a really good 43:07.000 --> 43:09.000 limit of detection for what we 43:09.000 --> 43:10.000 were looking for with our 43:10.000 --> 43:12.000 equipment. 43:12.000 --> 43:13.000 However, we know that mercury is 43:13.000 --> 43:14.000 used all the time by small scale 43:14.000 --> 43:16.000 miners. 43:16.000 --> 43:17.000 We do know that it's getting 43:17.000 --> 43:18.000 into the environment. 43:18.000 --> 43:19.000 Just because we can't stick a 43:19.000 --> 43:21.000 number on it, I'm very confident 43:21.000 --> 43:23.000 that there are environmental 43:23.000 --> 43:24.000 concerns when we start talking 43:24.000 --> 43:26.000 about the mercury contamination 43:26.000 --> 43:28.000 in this area. 43:28.000 --> 43:30.000 More work needs to be undertaken 43:30.000 --> 43:32.000 not only to understand sort of 43:32.000 --> 43:33.000 the chemicals and the pollutants 43:33.000 --> 43:35.000 that are there, but also then, 43:35.000 --> 43:39.000 now what do we do? 43:39.000 --> 43:42.000 Rural Ghana is a developing 43:42.000 --> 43:44.000 country and as I said, the 43:44.000 --> 43:45.000 infrastructure is really 43:45.000 --> 43:46.000 lacking. 43:46.000 --> 43:48.000 So most people do not have 43:48.000 --> 43:50.000 indoor plumbing. 43:50.000 --> 43:51.000 They go to the bore hole for all 43:51.000 --> 43:54.000 of their water needs. 43:54.000 --> 43:55.000 There's a latrine, which is 43:55.000 --> 43:57.000 sometimes sited fairly close to 43:57.000 --> 44:00.000 the bore hole where everybody 44:00.000 --> 44:03.000 uses and the population is 44:03.000 --> 44:05.000 growing significantly because of 44:05.000 --> 44:07.000 the mining operations, so I 44:07.000 --> 44:08.000 believe the capacity of some of 44:08.000 --> 44:10.000 these latrines and also the 44:10.000 --> 44:14.000 water system is being taxed. 44:14.000 --> 44:16.000 There really has to be a lot 44:16.000 --> 44:17.000 more work done in the 44:17.000 --> 44:18.000 remediation aspect, and of 44:18.000 --> 44:20.000 course, it's not going to happen 44:20.000 --> 44:22.000 overnight and there are a lot of 44:22.000 --> 44:23.000 things we have to consider as 44:23.000 --> 44:27.000 far as education on how to use 44:27.000 --> 44:28.000 some of these remediation 44:28.000 --> 44:30.000 technologies. 44:30.000 --> 44:32.000 They have to be very low cost. 44:32.000 --> 44:34.000 Most of the country lives below 44:34.000 --> 44:38.000 the poverty line of $2 per day. 44:38.000 --> 44:39.000 And they have to be local 44:39.000 --> 44:41.000 because transportation 44:41.000 --> 44:42.000 infrastructure is also a 44:42.000 --> 44:45.000 problem. 44:45.000 --> 44:46.000 In my opinion, that's really 44:46.000 --> 44:48.000 where the work needs to be 44:48.000 --> 44:50.000 moving and I'm happy to say that 44:50.000 --> 44:53.000 the materials, the equipment and 44:53.000 --> 44:55.000 materials that I used for my 44:55.000 --> 44:57.000 project were then donated to 44:57.000 --> 44:59.000 UMaT for the students to 44:59.000 --> 45:03.000 continue to use. 45:03.000 --> 45:04.000 They have students who are 45:04.000 --> 45:06.000 interested in environmental 45:06.000 --> 45:10.000 concerns with mining and so I 45:10.000 --> 45:11.000 think that more data will be 45:11.000 --> 45:15.000 coming through soon. 45:15.000 --> 45:16.000 I want to make sure that I 45:16.000 --> 45:18.000 acknowledge National Science 45:18.000 --> 45:19.000 Foundation for the funding for 45:19.000 --> 45:21.000 this project over two years, for 45:21.000 --> 45:23.000 the Discovery Corps 45:23.000 --> 45:25.000 post-doctoral fellowship, the 45:25.000 --> 45:26.000 MRSEC Center for Nanoscale 45:26.000 --> 45:27.000 Science, which was sort of my 45:27.000 --> 45:28.000 home department while I was at 45:28.000 --> 45:30.000 Penn State, and they were very 45:30.000 --> 45:32.000 helpful as far as facilitating 45:32.000 --> 45:33.000 the administration of this 45:33.000 --> 45:36.000 grant, and definitely, sorry, 45:36.000 --> 45:37.000 the University of Mines and 45:37.000 --> 45:39.000 Technology. 45:45.000 --> 45:46.000 Let's just get back to that 45:46.000 --> 45:47.000 real quick. 45:47.000 --> 45:48.000 Dr. Richard Amankwah 45:48.000 --> 45:50.000 was kind of my faculty director 45:50.000 --> 45:51.000 when I was there. 45:51.000 --> 45:52.000 He's now the Dean of Students 45:52.000 --> 45:53.000 at UMaT. 45:53.000 --> 45:55.000 Fifi Quansah is a master's 45:55.000 --> 45:56.000 student that I worked with 45:56.000 --> 45:58.000 very closely. 45:58.000 --> 46:00.000 He was actually helping with 46:00.000 --> 46:01.000 the sampling and going out 46:01.000 --> 46:03.000 to sampling sites and this work 46:03.000 --> 46:04.000 has become part 46:04.000 --> 46:06.000 of his master's thesis. 46:06.000 --> 46:08.000 So thank you very much 46:08.000 --> 46:10.000 and I will take any questions. 46:10.000 --> 46:14.000 (applause)