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Gold is one of the most precious metals in the world, and has run the gamut from its
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use as currency, to jewelry, and even to electronic plating, and infrared shielding.
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But for many people the cost far outweighs its intrinsic value.
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Seeker Stories went to South America to learn about some of the worst exploitation, both
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human and environmental.
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Check it out.
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Gold is maybe the most universal shorthand there is for value, and for greed.
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The ancient Egyptians were obsessed with it.
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European explorers marauded through South America in search of it.
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And American cities like San Francisco and Seattle rose to prominence because of it.
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It’s a big part of our history as humans.
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Looking at all that, our obsession with gold also seems historical, sort of old timey - but
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that’s not at all true.
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There’s still huge demand for it today - the recession of 2008 helped gold quadruple in
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value.
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And a full half of all the gold mined in the world has been mined in the past 50 years.
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But what is different about gold today is how we get it.
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What happens in gold producing areas is not what we imagine where somebodies in a cave,
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using a chisel and a hammer to get these big golden nuggets.
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That’s Diego, a photojournalist who spent some time in Cajamarca, Peru near a modern
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gold mine.
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Actually, not just any gold mine...the largest in all of Latin America.
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And modern mining looks very different than it used to.
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most of the gold that we are mining now comes in the forms of little specks of sand, little
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flakes mixed in with dirt.
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a lot of these companies are using open pit mines to grab as much dirt as possible and
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then they process it with different chemicals
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Those chemicals are cyanide, arsenic, and mercury...basically a laundry list of things
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you want to keep far away from people.
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But the mining process creates a lot of waste water laced with those pollutants.
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And up in the Andes mountains, the water doesn’t stay put.
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when you take a mining operation and you put it on top of a mountain, the water as we all
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know, only follows gravity, it goes down in every direction,
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And therein lies the problem.
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According to Diego, poisoned water has seeped throughout the region, causing stomach cancer
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in people, illnesses in livestock, and decimated fish populations.
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And the people of Cajamarca, who were promised new wealth from the mining economy, haven’t
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all seen a benefit.
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they see water that is contaminated and economic opportunities that haven't really changed
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for them.
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[0:30] quality of life has remained the same for many of these people without any of the
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profits you would assume a gold mine would bring to a region
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And so the people have done the one thing they’re able to do about the mines: protest.
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They’re pushing back against foreign corporate influence, ruined natural resources...and
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a history that somehow never has seemed to change for them.
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they've been exploited for about 500 years now, ever since the spanish arrived and started
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taking the Incan’s gold.
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the same story happens wherever you have resource extraction projects.
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it's a dirty industry which makes private profits and public disasters.
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For Diego, it all comes back to the value of gold.
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As expensive as gold is right now, after visiting Cahamarca Diego sees it as undervalued.
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Dangerously so.
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i realized that gold is cheap because we pay to it through the lives of people who live
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in gold producing areas, through the lives of people who live in Cajamarca.
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This is video’s part of a short series we’re doing on protest movements around the world.
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To get a peek behind the front lines of a movement called black bloc, click now.
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If you want to see more in depth content like this, check out Seeker Stories.
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They’ll take you around the world sharing the stories that surprise, challenge and inspire
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you - like this one about a company that is revolutionizing sustainable energy with an
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unexpected resource.
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Please make sure to like and subscribe to Seeker Stories for more webdocs.
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Thanks for watching!