 For our next presentation, Shung Ping Calus was known towards the U.S. environmental protection need to be put to 21 years as an on-scene coordinator managing environmental emergencies. Prior to working for the EPA, paying more than the geologist and mining engineer for extractive industries, spent a year of research and development for the disposal of the manufacturer. In 2018-23, under the agreement between the EPA and the U.S. Department of State of the Mercury and Critical Minerals program, Ping lived in the design and implementation of the first Mercury company service in Colombia, also the first of its kind in Latin America. Ping has a master's degree in geological engineering, a master's degree in mining engineering, both from the Colorado School of Science and also a master's degree in public health from John Hopkins University. He registered for federal engineer in the state of Colorado, the extensive international experience in Vietnamese, English, French, and Spanish, and currently re-learning German stuff. Like, welcome, Ping. Thank you, Cal. So, I'm just trying to stay, like, clear some questions. Like, what does mining has to do with energy development? First of all, there's a lot of parallel in how extractive industry affect the communities. And secondly, without transition, I mean, we tend to think traditionally energy is carbon hydrocarbons or carbon coal, but with transition to renewable energy, say in solar, we need to mine a huge quantity of sand to get the silica for solar panels. And the transition from combustion engine to electric vehicles requires a variety of critical minerals in order for these vehicles. So in a sense that a lot of the energy sources went from hydrocarbon intensive to mineral and mining intensive. And also one of the message I want to drive home is the not in our backyard mentality doesn't work. And as we go through this, we'll keep coming back to that theme. So I'll start with the Minamata Convention on Mercury. So basically it's an international treaty. UN, with a whole bunch of countries, you got 128 signatories and countries in October 2013 that sign it. And they said, you know, Mercury is a pollutant, it's very persistent, it has a lot of damages to environment and to human health, and we need to ban it. And one of the countries is Colombia and they are one of the original signatories in 2013. And then their Congress ratified the Minamata Convention, the terms in 2019. Artisanal and small scale gold mining is actually considered under the Minamata Convention and allowable use of Mercury. That means Mercury still can be imported and exported for use in this sector with certain restrictions. But Colombia went a little bit further and they actually banned it. So this is the kind of a breakdown is a little bit old. It's 2015 numbers compiled by the United Nations Environmental Program about how anthropological generated mercury, i.e. that mercury emission that is created by human activities. Because like there's certain naturally natural release such as like a volcanic volcano and other sources. And this picture is actually a little bit outdated because a lot of the industry, they have reduced like cement or alkaline. They have reduced the use of it. And so proportionally, artisanal and small scale gold mining is the largest single source of human generated mercury emission in the world right now. So in Colombia, in 2013, after signing the Minamata Convention, they created the law 1658. And as a side, this is the thing that drives me nuts working there because we the US law similar to UK. We use common law and Colombia is more like Napoleonic Roman law. So everything has a number. So every time you ask somebody a question, they'll quote you a number and the law before they answer it. And anyway, this law 1638, it banned the use of mercury, but they ground the minus until July 2018 to completely transition to mercury free technologies. But as a result, they continue to use mercury, except that because it's illegal and I guess everything that's illegal is more expensive. So the mercury price increased somewhere between 150 to 300%. And depends on like the location, who you buy it from and whatnot. And as of last month, somebody from the Ministry of Environment told me that the wholesale price in mercury is approximately a little bit under $400 per kilogram. And the little picture was like, there's an online marketplace called Mercado Libre in Colombia. Not quite Amazon, but you can order things online. And even though it is banned, it's illegal, I could actually have mercury delivered to my apartment in Bogota. Then those are the prices and the different quantities. So, but to be fair, it's not just color. I mean, yes, there's corruption and there are things that are inefficient in Colombia, but we cannot just blame it on them because it's actually a regional issue because they share a lot of borders and it's very porous. And for example, Peru still allowed the use of mercury. And Venezuela being that is almost like a failed state, they try to, there's a lot of mercury going into Colombia and go going back and it's a lot of cross border trafficking. So it's very difficult to control. And then the second thing is, it's kind of like a chicken and egg issue because a lot of these small miners, they don't have mining permit. And they don't have mining permit because it's almost impossible. I talked to somebody in the Ministry of Mines and I said, hey, we need to help these miners get mining permits. And they said, oh, they need to fill out these paperwork. And I said, well, but they are somewhere out in Chaco and other departments. Again, digress, sorry. Colombia has 32 departments and they're loosely translated to kind of like our states, you know, we have 50 states. So some people in further away from the capital, I said, how are they supposed to fill out the forms? They couldn't even afford the bus fare from wherever they are to take the bus there. And I said, well, you know, they can do it online. But you can see some of the pictures that these people, some of them do not even have electricity or running water. And some of them are illiterate. I went to a meeting in Chaco and one of the first specific department in Colombia that is about 80 plus percent black population. They are descendants of slaves. And in one of the meetings, we had about 30 some people and we have passed around the sign up sheet and there were two ladies that they put a thumb print as a sign up because they cannot even write. So how do you I mean what kind of burden they're putting on them to become legal and formalized minor when they can't even do all of that stuff. And then when they are not and when they're not a legal minor, then they can't even open a bank account because they go to the bank and they ask, you know, what is your profession? It's like minor and where's your mining permit or your mining license? You can't share with one. You cannot open a bank account. You cannot get a loan. So we want to help them to transition from using mercury to a different type of mining technology. But a lot of times it takes money to buy equipment, change the process, and then they don't have the money and they cannot change. They cannot abandon mercury, but if you're still using mercury, you cannot become legal. And it's just like a very frustrating dilemma. So this is kind of like a global mercury assessment. So the biggest problem is China. And the second is actually India has dropped. The second one currently is Indonesia. And the third is Colombia as far as global mercury generation. But however, you know, when you look at China, you got about 1.4 billion population versus Colombia, you got a little bit over 50 million. So on a per capita basis, Colombia actually took number one in the world as far as mercury generation. So it goes back to like, why do we care? You know what I mean? It's thousands of miles away and they're doing this stuff. And based on the EPA study, approximately 70% of the mercury deposited in the United States come from global sources. So once mercury vapor become airborne and gets into the atmosphere, it can remain floating around up there for approximately a year. And then it lands wherever it is. And in other studies, like say, there's a mercury increase in the lake in Sweden because somebody is increasing mining in Indonesia and somehow they trace the isotope trace the wind direction and everything. So that goes back to what I'm saying, like not enough backyard thing doesn't work. And it's very persistent bio cumulative. So a lot of times they get into a water with bacterial action and then it becomes methyl mercury and it get into the food chain and fish tissue and whatnot. So, and that's why some of you may heard about the mercury fish consumption advisory or tuna or some of the fish that's higher in the food chain. In early in early 2000, at least 50% of the gold mine in Colombia is from informal or illegal sources. And they often use mercury and they often have some ties, sometimes with ties to cartel and armed groups. And at the same time, the US imported about 1.23 billion worth of gold from Colombia. So a couple things, some of the ties, at least based on one source I was talking to somebody in the Colombian military, they actually have an anti illegal mining brigade. And they said that the carteros in Colombia and Peru are more focused in production of cocaine. Mexico has become kind of the marketing and distribution center for North America. So, but Mexico still has active mercury mine. So a lot of times, I mean, they will fly cocaine to Mexico and instead of in exchange for dollars, they'll pick up mercury and then they'll take it back and they'll hand it to these miners to use this mercury to mine gold. And then they'll take a percentage of gold as a form of money laundering because there's nothing illegal about gold, you know, once you get gold and you say, okay, I make my money from gold. And another thing about, I think with communication and with transportation with travel, our earth is beginning a lot figuratively, a lot smaller, and it's a lot of interconnection. And one of the things that I think is interesting is the supply and demand thing, because for a long time, we get illegal marijuana from Mexico. But now I'm from Colorado. So it is, it is legal and by by USA. So now we are using a lot of work, marijuana from this country, some of the Mexican hotels actually switch to avocado tree. And I don't know how you traffic avocado maybe they skip the USDA inspection or whatnot. But we are using domestically produced marijuana. So, but with everybody wanting their avocado toast and this suddenly this high demand of avocado. And I guess what I'm trying to say is like, our action has more than immediate consequences. So, it is a little bit unfair to kind of blame the producer countries like okay you guys should not generating cocaine and all that stuff and we're spraying it you guys would round up but if nobody wants it, they're not going to produce it. So, the next one is interesting is a graph from the Council of hemispheric affairs is a think tank in Washington DC with people a lot smarter than I am. And they come up with this, that the relationship between go price and coca production. So, one thing that is, I mean it's pretty obvious but we don't think about is like drug hotels are not into drugs. They're into making money. So, with go prices being so high, they actually make more money from go then from from drugs. And you can see that when go prices is high, they can drop the coca production. And when go prices drop, they actually increase the coca production in order to make up of the difference. So, I thought that was just interesting and also like that all the interconnection of the little pieces is not just like, you know, nothing is straightforward. How, how on earth did I get involved? US embassies and consulates every year they request science or fellows to assist on science technology environmental health and various issue that the embassy staff they do not have in-house expertise. And each year EPA select certain people and over the course there's more than 110 EPA staff around being around the world to help with embassy on certain projects. And EPA in addition also signed a bilateral agreement on mercury cooperation with the government of Columbia. So basically they said, okay, we need somebody that knows mining that knows a little bit of mercury and I thought, well, you know, when I first got out of school, gold was like about $270 an ounce and oil was like $11 a barrel and nobody wanted a geologist and mining engineer. And one of my professors said, you want to do an internship in Chile. So I went to Chile and did an internship. That was many years ago. And when I saw the advertisement for like science fellow in Colombia and it's like, well, you know, I think I still remember how to speak Spanish. I understand mining and it's kind of a health and I've been with EPA for all this time. So put my hand up and for some reason I got that. So, so some of the kind of like a snapshot the background of the problem and estimated 200 250,000 Colombians engaged in artisanal or small scale gold mining, and not all of the unlicensed miners are illegal. So there's a fine line between informal miners, illegal miners and criminal activities. I don't even want to get into the minutiae. Unfortunately, on the average, approximately five grams of mercury, sometimes up to seven grams is used for each of gram each gram of gold produced. And it depends on the mining method and the regions, because some of the miners like for example in Peruvian, Amazon, and I know I'm supposed to be talking about Colombia but it's kind of regional and when you look at the Amazon basins there's not really like a clear cut border about what's going on. They tend to concentrate the mineral first and add the gold to it and Colombians tend to do what we call whole or amalgamation and they just dump it in without concentration first. So they use a little bit more mercury. Again, it's just a guess between 250 to 350 tons of mercury being released into the environment on an annual basis. And in some communities that's in Sikovia, the concentration of mercury vapor and ambient reach 200,000 nanogram per meter cube. The EPA clearance for residents say like you got a mercury spill, we got clean and then how clean is clean. The EPA number is like 1000 nanograms per cubic meter is for residents and about 3000 is for officers and public places. So that's like huge, you know you go in basically your Lumax or your Jerome pack then you have to drive out of town for 20 minutes before you could go and play it and measure it again. Then you have social issues, just like a lot of mining tanks, except that is further like child labor, child prostitution, drug trade, trafficking of endangered flora and fauna because in order to go into the mines sometimes they'll cut down trees and build a row and on the way they say oh this parrot I could sell it for a lot of money in the US or some collectors places so they grab it. There are similar problems in Bolivia, Peru and African countries such as Ghana and Mali and also work with that a little bit and basically there are about 70 countries in the world still using mercury to mine gold. So that's an overflight of some of the Amazon areas and at the end you'll see more of a virgin forest but basically this is kind of like the sediment load is incredible chemicals and erosion so further up top that's supposed to be what is supposed to look like prior to undermining damage. I do have a correction, our Vice President said that 20% of the oxygen comes from the Amazon basin, that is not true. And the exact percentage of oxygen is kind of up to debate because it depends on like it's and it's a system in itself because when the root is rotting it actually generates CO2 or where they're burning or clear cutting but it does have a huge impact on regulating climate and it's a huge source of freshwater supply for the region. So and then the next one is child labor. A lot of things that we're doing is baby steps and super baby steps. I mean obviously we don't want to see little kids mining in mines and especially with no PPE and working with mercury but we can't eliminate that. So in order to help them, this is actually a project between US Department of Labor, they had personnel in the US Embassy and let's say NGO Cosmo de Sorros to protect children and we come up with these board games for kids. So kind of try to teach them M sure 40 hours through snakes and ladders and some other game. I mean it doesn't really work but it's better than nothing. And then so this is another thing that doesn't want actually I work with the people in the US Embassy in Lima Peru. The US Ambassador was visiting a region and they're trying to hand out gifts to little kids like school supply notebooks, coloring books and bookpads. And in each of the bookpads we eliminate a copy of that. And so basically telling kids that you know when you have to burn mercury don't burn it at home. So what happened is a lot of times when they're using a placer type of mining they agglomerate the gold with mercury, and then they torch the mercury. I mean the torch amalgam mercury becomes airborne and they're left with gold and they call it sponge gold. There are people that were at home next to the cooking stove and then the nose right next to it and they're burning it. I can't really tell them no but we try to say okay don't burn it at home burn it in the open so at least we can't eliminate the use, not with the resources we have, not with the challenges but at least minimize it. So some, and it just, it just really hurts to have to create these things for little kids. So that's the next one. And one of the area that's the one I talked about earlier is Choco is mostly black. And there's a very, very poor region. Columbia's minimum wage is approximately 330 US dollars a month. And these miners make on a good week they make about 40 US dollars. There's no super biodiversity and the rainfall is about, where is it? It has this huge rainfall is about almost 2,000 millimeters per year, approximately three or four times wetter than the Amazon. And they have a lot of African traditions still. So the picture on the left those boats that's in Choco Columbia on the right was in Africa. I was in Africa late last year and they have a lot of, they still preserve a lot of the African traditions. Let's see. So this one I'm still trying to get to it. I wanted to talk to this community, but the US Embassy decided that it's too dangerous for me to go to the field. So the organizer I was actually working with a World Wildlife Fund. And so they brought the people to a place that the US Embassy allowed me to go. And they were demonstrating that there's in the tradition they have this loose leaves on the left. I'm still trying to get to what chemical reaction it is. And they use it in panning gold instead of mercury, then increases the helps with the concentration of gold. But these ladies basically they bent a bend over in a creek, you know, getting sunburned, getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. And on a good week they make about $40. So next one. So a little bit about, you know, how the US Embassy overseas is organized. And mining, health, energy, everything is under economics. I guess it has to be under something, you know, you can't just, they won't do a mining or energy stand alone. But depends, you know, when I first started I was very, very fortunate we got a great economic officer. It was very supportive of the stuff because the people in charge of economics, they usually like MBA types. They don't understand science and technology, but I was very grateful for him. So the area of focus. So basically beginning in 2018, I did a three month assignment, but it split into two trips. I did six weeks there trying to collect and see what's going on and then come back. It's also over Christmas, so it doesn't make sense to when everybody is on vacation. And I did some more research and then I went back. I was supposed to go back in January, but in 2019 remember the government shut down. So I was, I was at home until the government reopened again in late February or March and I went back. I was basically embedded at the Columbia Ministry of Environment for three months. They gave me my own cube and I'm working with them on a day to day basis. And then my focus ended up being the health and safety guidelines and handling mercury and storage and final disposal. What happened was like I was at a meeting with the Ministry of Defense and they said, oh, last year we confiscated almost like six metric tons of mercury. And we don't know what to do with it. And, and I, and I said, you know, this is maybe this is like one thing that I could get done in three months, just one tiny subject health and safety and handling and storage was naive. It took me five years to get it done. It's not, it's not low hanging fruit at all. So, so we work with the different ministry, especially with environment Ministry of Defense and then oh yes, the oceans and environmental and science with the part of a State Department and a lot of NGOs and as well as some UN folks. They're challenges because first of all, they presented a problem we have these mercury we don't know how what to do with it so I did a training on PPE and I brought some stuff there. And then a colleague and a ministry and environment and I worked together and we come up with basically just like a walking cooler from a restaurant modified fortified and said let's collect the mercury and store it there because keep the temperature low and keep the favor pressure low. And initially we presented to the military because they said they confiscated all this mercury in us. And being that mercury is illegal. So it's also very, very valuable and we don't want to just put it anywhere because people are going to steal it. So we thought, okay, the military is a perfect solution. They have the military compound and then they're secure. So we presented to them. And then at first they like it, you know, they like all the PPE when I start bringing up chain of custody. Suddenly they said, well, you know, we don't have a lot of mercury. Mostly the police have it. And I said, well, then how much mercury do you have when they said, well, you know, you got a storage facility. What if there's a spill and and went on and on and I found out that. And that was the probably one of the very few times I was scared in Columbia because they don't want a chain of custody because they confiscate the mercury and they turn around and sell it to the miners. And, and then I thought, oh, I'm getting in the way between people making money. And these people got big guns. So then they went and went to talk to the police talk to the attorney general and attorney general. I mean, they come up with all the most ridiculous things like, oh, we left the mercury in the field when we shut down the mining operation. I was like, why do you leave the mercury in the field? Because it messes up the low balance of the auto of the helicopter. And I was like, wait a minute, you know. So anyway, I got lucky. Finally, on another project I'm working with an NGO is to rework the tailings because a lot of tailings are old and a mercury program. Actually, you can go back to the Spanish conquistadors when they first got there and they weren't using mercury back then. So this technology changes. There's actually still a lot of gold in the tailings because the methods is not. I mean, they're not high tech. And we said, well, what if we come up with a way to reduce the mercury and recover the gold and hopefully to go if not 100% pay for the process at least pay for part of the cleanup. And but then then we start getting into mineral rights and land rights and who owns this tailing of is abundant. So we work with some lawyers and somehow led us to their the Colombian Procuratoria, which is their equivalent of inspector general. And at the same time, I mean, I really just this is just a stroke of luck. There's an activist in this area, this department called Santander was bugging the Colombian government and say there's a lot of mercury in the drinking water is 100 times over the World Health Organization limit. And Inspector General's office didn't know what to do with it because, as you all know, cleaning up mercury in like a river in a nine point source is just a lot of work. So then they said, wait a minute, this stupid woman from the US is peddling her mercury storage system. So why don't we put one there. So I actually got played but I'm happy to get played because then they said they went to the capital of the area they went to Bucaramanga which is a town that is where this active near this activist is like, and they told a laboratory of kind of like the EQ lab. It's like, you guys will have a mercury storage system or we're going to sanction you. So, and then they told me that, well, they'll take your mercury storage system. And I said, Oh, great. So I just put in and then I found out that so they had a big to do a big splash in news and say, we are taking care of mercury problem and we're putting a mercury storage in the lab. Oh, I mean, it's a good thing, but it has nothing to do with the mercury in the water. It's still not clean, but at no cost to them at all. They actually said that, oh, we're doing something. So that's how it come about. And it's like, I was having coffee with one of the directors of a national park. And next to my coffee was a jar of mercury. He's storing it on his desk. So that's the fridge. It's basically just a lab fridge. But I think the point is, it's not the structure, but it's a system. This actually, we went through a chain of custody, you know, how to with the mercury. And then after an emergency spill response system, we actually role play and say, Okay, if I spill here, what is the thing not to, what do we need to do not to spread it around and whatnot. To me, the system is more important than the structure. And we have a contract with a company in a town called Kali. And what they would do is like, when the fridges sort of fall, we'll ship it over there. And they'll mix it with sulfur to turn it back into metacinibar or cinnabar and then they add polymer to it to stabilize it and put it in hazardous material landfill. So step forward. So I retire last October because I still love to work because the government is driving me nuts. So, but there's some money left and basically like I was funded by the State Department and State Department gave the money to EPA. So there's some money left and so EPA, I'm working still working with some of my former colleagues because they requested like a training on site assessment contaminated site assessment and that's supposed to happen in May. And then, and then I got a call and they said the US Embassy wants to fund three more additional storage system and one of the NGOs I worked with call me last month and say, hey, you know, you want to come down and work again. I said, yeah, sure. So, and all of that would not happen. So my former EPA Laura Williams EPA supervisor she was super supportive, Jane and Andrew Chapman from US Department of State made it happen. And the gentleman from Brookhaven National Lab was super generous about sharing knowledge. And then Colonel Carlos Alberto Montenegro he he has retired to he was at one point a military attache at the Columbia Embassy in DC, and my utmost respect to the individuals in Columbia and working with the Ministry of Safety and Inspector General's office because yet there are times I mean I don't want to drama be overly dramatic but there are times that there are risk. And for me know if things get too hard I just catch a flight and get out of town. But these people I work with they have the family there, their whole life is there. And they know when they do these things that there's a chance of getting threats and getting getting into a dangerous situation. They don't get pay much. And they just kept working and working and supporting me. So, I'm very, very grateful for that. And that's my contact now that I'm not with EPA. Happy to take questions or talk about anything. Thank you mentioned a couple of times that working with some bad people that were trying to make money. Talk about some of the security, security precautions. There are some additional slides. So this is actually in Ghana, not in Columbia. Before going, that's the thing. Before going, I had to take a one week course in somewhere in Virginia, and I get to crash cows, get to drive very fast, do J turns. So this part of the State Department training, but more realistically actually that's a very good question and I think there's something that I want to share and I made all my EPA colleagues carry a trauma kit after that training, because tourniquets is back in fashion again. That does my public health pain talking, not the EPA pain. Neurosurgeons are so good that they could save a limb after being in tourniquet for 23 hours. And during the training, we got some of the medics that were in Iraq, Afghanistan that save people were training us. So with all the crazy gunshots stuff going on and working in remote areas, I went back to my boss and say we all need a trunk. I mean, it's a small kid. This may be $100, but it's something to look into carrying around or keeping in your car, especially in remote areas that may save your life. This is the bedroom door of the apartment that I stayed provided by the State Department. It's basically like a jail door and when you under that wood is like a metal grid. And then it has a metal frame on the left is the boat on the hinge side. There were four of those and then there's one up top, and then on the other side, there were all of those. So they said like, if, if things get really scary, then go there and lock and barricade yourself and call the Marines. I don't know. And I've gotten into that situation. So I think I have the benefit that I'm not a natural born US citizen that grew up in Hong Kong I moved in this country when I was 15. So there are a lot of times I was able to look at things from a foreigner's perspective, because you can't just go there and pound your chest and say we're the US government, we're the 400 pound gorilla and we want this to happen. You have to convince them and, and, and I don't even have to lie because Columbia is a beautiful country, huge biodiversity. I think over 30% of the birds found on earth, either live in Columbia or migrate through Columbia. So that is like, you can just convince them, hey, you know, you got all of this resources. And let's not mess it up. And let's protect the environment and protect your, your children's health. So that's not. I don't think it's that difficult if you're going back to somebody said that, you know, just a common sense, try to put yourself in their shoes, you know, you don't want somebody to come in and tell you what to do. Can you tell me in that one slide where you showed the Amazon so disturbed. Is there anything being done in those areas to clean that up. There's really no cleanup. It's kind of like a whack-a-mole because you got Columbia, you got Peru, you got Brazil, you got Ecuador and Bolivia, all sharing the Amazon. And so the river ecosystem doesn't know country borders. And then another thing is, is a little bit disturbing, but we're trying to give them some oil spill training in the upcoming in May from my colleagues. Because when they, so the picture I saw are the really artisanal mining with women, basically just panning like we do in the West. But there are some more organized stuff. And for example, in the area I show in charcoal, there are a lot of Brazilian dredgers and they have these big dredgers dredging the river for gold. And when the Colombian army showed up, they basically bomb it and burn it, that create different kind of pollution. So I asked them, like, why don't you like the US government? Like, you know, when IRS or the government confiscate stuff, we have an auction and we sell it. And so we don't waste resources. I mean, these dredgers are not exactly cheap and the government could generate some income. And they said, because of the criminal element, for example, if you go to an auction and buy this dredger, or they confiscate a house and then you buy the house from the government, you move in. The organizations, be it paramilitary or crime, they'll come back to you and threaten you and say, hey, this used to be apartment, you better move out. I'm going to get it back. So to avoid that, they just burn everything. And I don't think we have got to the point that we can consider cleaning it up because they're still generating mercury. So like, instead of cleaning up, I think the focus is to prevent further contamination.