Resumen Introduccion: Dada la problematica social y ambiental generada por la mineria aurifera artesanal y a pequena escala (MAAPE), se lleva a cabo en el presente documento la revision del estado del arte en cuanto a la gestion ambiental de aguas residuales con mercurio (Hg) a nivel mundial. Materiales y metodos: La revision se realizo a partir de articulos cientificos publicados durante los ultimos cinco anos, encontrando que las intervenciones para abordar los impactos por Hg en la MAAPE, se han enfocado en la creacion de leyes de reduccion y eliminacion del uso del mercurio, las cuales han sido poco efectivas. Resultados: El 62% de los sitios evaluados, se encuentran en una categoria de gestion ambiental inexistente, el 8% se encuentra en etapa reactiva y el 31% en responsable, mientras que no se encontro ningun proceso en gestion proactiva o competitiva. De otra parte, se encontraron diversos estudios a nivel experimental sobre tratamientos de aguas residuales con Hg, que podrian ser adaptados a la gestion de los residuos liquidos provenientes de la MAAPE. Abstract Introduction: Given the social and environmental problems caused by artisanal and small-scale gold mining (MAAPE), the review of the state of art was conducted in this paper in terms of environmental management of wastewater with mercury (Hg) worldwide. Materials and methods: The review was conducted from scientific articles published over the past five years. It was found that interventions to address the impacts by Hg in the MAAPE have been focused on the creation of laws to reduce and eliminate the use of mercury, which have been ineffective. Results: In this way, 62% of the tested sites are in a category of nonexistent environmental management, 8% is in reactive phase and 31% in charge phase, while no process was found in proactive or competitive management. Moreover, several experimental studies on wastewater treatment with Hg were found, which could be adapted to the management of liquid waste from the MAAPE found.