Summary of supply, trade and demand information on mercury
Table 12
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Global mercury supply, 2005 Sources of mercury supply (2005)
Primary mercury mining By-product mercury Recycled mercury from chlor-alkali wastesa) Recycled mercury - otherb) Mercury from chlor-alkali cells (decommissioning)c) Stocksd) Total
Mercury supply (metric tonnes) Range 1350-1600 450-600 90-140 450-520 600-800 0-200 3000-3800
Notes: a) Recycled mercury from chlor-alkali plants includes mercury from sludges and wastes that are retorted on-site, as well as mercury from wastes that are sent offsite for recycling. b) “Recycled mercury – other” includes all non-chlor-alkali sources c) “Hg from chlor-alkali cells” is elemental mercury removed from cells at decommissioning. d) The mercury made available from Former Soviet Union stocks in 2005 was not delivered until early 2006, as described in Section 3.1.3. There is no information on other stocks that may have been exploited.
161. Table 13 summarises the global mercury supply during the period 1995-2005. While the mercury supply and demand for 2005 have been calculated separately for this report, in previous years it has generally been assumed that supply and demand for mercury were in reasonable balance, with data on mercury supply (such as Hylander and Meili (2003), for example) naturally suggesting equivalent demand over time.