The Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the “Minamata Convention on Mercury” was held in Minamata and Kumamoto, Japan from 9th to 11th October 2013.
Mongolia became the 92nd country to join the Minamata Convention on Mercury during the Conference on October 10th. The Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the “Minamata Convention on Mercury” was attended by over 1000 delegates from non-government and professional associations from 139 countries worldwide.

The Minamata Convention is designed to protect human health and the environment from mercury emissions in the atmosphere spreading to rivers and the ground through human activities. To provide a solution for primary gold processing, the project embarked on establishing a pilot plant in Bornuur soum of Tuv aimag. The Bornuur Pilot processing plant was established to carry out experimental work in mercury free technology for gold extraction. On request from miners and Mongolian counterparts, the project developed mercury-free gold processing plants in Mongolia and two of these plants received official authorisation and are providing environmentally and health-friendly services to ASM communities. The ecological impact assessment was conducted which concluded that the Bornuur, Mandal and Bayan-Ovoo soums plants use environment friendly technology.