The metallurgy licence is due to expire next Friday, meaning the Primary Industries and Mines Department needs to make its decision of whether to extend the licence before that date.

The consideration is partly based on information from opponents of the large gold mine and Akara Resources, a subsidiary of Sydney-based Kingsgate Consolidated.

Information about the mine’s operations, its potential environmental and health impact, and the analysis of heavy metal and cyanide found outside the mine were reported to the committee that will rule on the licence request.

On Tuesday, the autopsy result of a deceased Akara Resources gold mine worker, Somkid Thampawet, was handed to the Industry Ministry. It stated his death was unrelated to toxins from the mine.

Somkid’s wife Chamnian Tham-pawet, together with Akara Resources executives, said the Central Institute of Forensic Science autopsy result was proof Somkid did not die from the mine’s toxins.

Chamnian said her husband’s cause of death was identified as being from pneumonia and pulmonary embolism and not from heavy metal toxins, as expected.

She also revealed that she had received good care from Akara Resources including being given a job as a maid in the gold mine’s office.

Dr Suranarong Srisuwan, the CIFS deputy spokesperson who took part in the post-mortem on Somkid, said that two conclusions can be reached from the autopsy – Somkid died of pneumonia and before he died he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a spinal cord degeneration.

“We found that the cerebellum cell was incomplete, so we suspected that the heavy metal in his body was the cause of it, which matched with the autopsy on the body tissue that was found to contain high levels of heavy metal. Therefore, it is not easy to deny this evidence,” Suranarong said, adding that the origins of the heavy metal in Somkid’s blood still needed to be identified.

Tanapon Phenrat, a lecturer at the Faculty of Engineering at Naresuan University and the researcher responsible for investigating the cyanide and heavy metal contamination around the mine, said: “From the blood tests of people living around gold mine, we can see that the proportion of people who have a high manganese level in their blood is higher than the normal population, so I suspect that the people were exposed to heavy metal in some way.

“I suspect that the people received the manganese through inhaling dust particles smaller than 2.5 microns from the gold mine operation, which may contain high levels of manganese, but we are now studying that.”

He said that the arsenic level in wells downstream from the first tailing storage facility within the mine was 46 times higher than standard.

He said the test on cyanide found near the facility showed it had the same footprint as cyanide in the facility. That conclusion conflicts with the findings of Behre Dollbear International Ltd, Akara Resources’s consultant company, that stated the heavy metal originated naturally.

Tanapon said he believed the committee deciding on the licence renewal would carefully consider every piece of information in a trustworthy way.

The deputy permanent secretary for the Industry Ministry, Sukda Punkla, who received the autopsy report, stated that the report would be considered as part of the licence extension consideration.

Sukda said that the autopsy findings would be given the same importance as the other evidence from both the supporters and the opponents of the gold mine. “We realise now that Somkid’s death was caused by pneumonia, but we still have to consult the doctors to further identify the cause of his sickness,” Sukda said.

On April 23, a team comprising officials from the Industry Minister, Public Health Minister, Science Minister and Pollution Control Department inspected the mine and received information from both sides.