Global emissions of mercury to the atmosphere in 2005 and their 2020 scenarios

About the three quarters of the total anthropogenic emissions of mercury in the year 2005 estimated to be 1930 tonnes comes from sources where mercury is emitted as a by-product, and the rest is emitted during various applications of mercury. The largest emissions of Hg to the global atmosphere occur from combustion of fossil fuels, mainly coal in utility, industrial, and residential boilers (almost 47 %), followed by artisanal mining (almost 17 %), non-ferrous metal production, including gold production (13.5%) and cement production (about 9.5 %).