Sean Hawkey: Small-Scale Gold Mining
In Nicaragua, big risks for a small return
“Where do all those Olympic gold medals come from? Almost certainly some of the gold comes from mines like these. The gold is mined by people risking their lives, sometimes losing their lives; risking their health, normally losing their health. The gold is processed using the most toxic of substances that find their way into the water that people and animals drink, the air that people breath, and into the soil. The enormous mining corporations strike incredibly favourable deals, that many say can only be got with corruption, where they pay perhaps 5% in royalties so they get great profits for their shareholders; but it is filthy lucre, shameful profit, they leave behind poisoned environments that may never recover, and that doesn’t help the people living there. Protestors against this state of affairs are routinely murdered across Latin America… Gives another meaning to winning gold.” – Sean Hawkey
