High concentrations of HgS, MeHg and toxic gas emissions in thermally affected waste dumps from hard coal mining in Poland.This study aims to provide numerous environmental research approaches to understand the formation of mineral and organic mercury compounds in self-heating coal waste dumps of the Upper Silesian Coal Basin (USCB).  The mineralogy comprised accessory minerals in the fine fraction of thermally affected waste, i.e., Hg sulfides, most likely cinnabar or metacinnabar.  Moreover, other metals, e.g., Pb, Zn and Cu, were found as sulfide forms.  There were no correlations or trends between MeHg concentrations and elemental Hg, TS, TOC, and pH. Furthermore, we did not detect microbial genes responsible for Hg methylation. 
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