Randy Olson, Melissa Farlow Photography

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  • View through a muddy windshield shows trucks hauling waste rock at Batu Hijau, a copper and gold mine located on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa east of Jakarta. Ore is removed from the open-pit mine with electric shovels and haul trucks. Tailings from processing are disposed in the ocean and waste rock in the rainforest raising environmental concerns.
    Gold_20060413_00538.tif
  • Gold camp at mile-wide Batu Hijau, a copper and gold mine where life is quiet in the newly built town. Villages were moved from their homes to make way for the mine.
    GOLDGHANA_20060925_00332.tif
  • Gold from a mine in Ghana is packed and sorted for transport.
    GOLDGHANA_20060925_00922.tif
  • African guards watch as helicopter takes $7M worth of gold bars out of the Newmont mine in Ghana. old from a mine in Ghana is packed and sorted for transport.
    GOLDGHANA_20060925_01046.tif
  • Explosives set in pit at mile-wide Batu Hijau, a copper and gold min that is located on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa east of Jakarta. <br />
After men set explosions, ore is removed from the open-pit mine with electric shovels and haul trucks. Tailings from processing are disposed in the ocean and waste rock in the rainforest raising environmental concerns.
    GOLDGHANA_20060925_00813.tif
  • Areas of Borneo have been turned into a moonscape by illegal gold miners in Central Kalimantan. Indonesian farmers turn their hoes to mining, illegally digging for gold on a torn up riverbank in Borneo. For the chance to make five dollars a day, thousands have left their fields to join Indonesia’s gold rush. East Java has high unemployment and there are many migrant workers on Kalimantan (Borneo) that came from Java initially to do artisanal timber work. The government stomped out the little timber guys in favor of two big companies so they could control (read “profit from”) the industry. So all the artisanal timber workers switched to gold. Miners test in the 1000-ppm plus range for mercury (normal is 170 to 300). Eastern Java is severely overcrowded and the government has an official transmigration program over to Kalimantan. In Eastern Java they can earn about 100RP a day hoeing the fields. Here they can earn upwards of 30,000-60,000RP ($3-$6) a day. So it is worth it to camp in this area, having only the water (full of mercury) from the amalgam ponds to bathe and drink.
    Gold_20060420_01098.tif
  • Miners hold pans full of water in an amalgam pond to mix mercury with ore and separate out the gold. Workers absorb high level of mercury which causes health issues. If inhaled, mercury can cause permanent lung damage and potential brain damage. Exposure can also cause irritation to eyes, skin, stomach, cause weakness, headaches and breathing problems.
    Gold_20060421_02198.tif
  • Miners hold pans of water in an amalgam  pond mixing mercury with ore to separate out the gold. Workers absorb high levels of mercury by bathing and brushing their teeth in the discard. Health issues can include permanent lung damage and potential brain damage. Exposure can also cause irritation to eyes, skin, stomach, cause weakness, headaches and breathing problems.
    Gold_20060421_02357.tif
  • Randy Olson, a photographer on assignment for National Geographic at a gold mine in Ghana.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223065.TIF
  • Women with young children walk through the unpaved streets of a gold mining town in northeastern Congo.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976459.TIF
  • Wearing her fortune, from gold threads in her sari to a priceless heirloom headpiece, she waits to marry. The arranged marriage between two coffee plantation owning families involves a dowry of gold. Indians have more gold than USA reserve system.
    MM7339_20070918_00969.tif
  • Red and yellow flags decorate a colorful gold jewelry store in Bangalore.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223033.JPG
  • Gold from a mine in Ghana is packed into plastic after being sorted for transport.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1222965.JPG
  • A shopkeeper arranges his wares in the town of Karang Pani which supports the nearby gold mining operations.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223003.JPG
  • Headlights illuminate the small passage for illegal mining in an underground shaft on Ashanti Gold land.
    GOLDGHANA_20060925_01214.tif
  • Wearing her fortune, from gold threads in her sari to a priceless heirloom headpiece, she waits to marry. The arranged marriage between two coffee plantation owning families involves a dowry of gold. Indians have more gold than USA reserve system.
    MM7339_20070918_00524.tif
  • Drawers are full of gold bracelets at Rajesh Exports, the largest gold exporter in the world.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223061.TIF
  • A scarf and safety best are worn by an Islamic woman truck driver at a copper and gold mine. She drives a truck that has 240 tons of rock that will yield about nine ounces of gold.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1222991.JPG
  • Ceiling panel in the Palazzo Vecchio laminated with pure gold leaf on the frames of the religious paintings.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1222980.JPG
  • Workers at Rajesh Exports, the largest gold exporter in the world. They are making jewelry in intricate, ornate designs that appeals to Indian buyers.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223059.JPG
  • Trucks hauling waste rock are monitored on screens and windows at a copper and gold mine.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1222992.JPG
  • Billboards advertising gold wedding jewelry luring buyers before India's wedding season when sales soar. India is the top gold consumer with buyers collecting for investment as much as adornment.
    MM7339_20070918_02044.tif
  • The gold vault at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, one of twelve regional capital reserve banks in the system and located in the heart of the financial district in downtown Manhattan. <br />
Moving gold bars just a few feet from one storage closet to another can shape the balance of financial power between nations.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1222989.JPG
  • Women try on gold necklaces in a showroom on Askhays Tritiya day.  India is the top gold consumer with buyers collecting for investment as much as adornment.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1222976.TIF
  • A teenager works with miners sluicing for gold at an improvised, illegal mine.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223016.JPG
  • The gold vault at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, one of twelve regional capital reserve banks in the system and located in the heart of the financial district in downtown Manhattan. <br />
Moving gold bars just a few feet from one storage closet to another can shape the balance of financial power between nations.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223062.JPG
  • Buses, motor scooters and cars clog the roads under billboards advertising gold wedding jewelry. Buyers are lured in before India's wedding season when sales soar. India is the top gold consumer with buyers collecting for investment as much as adornment.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223041.JPG
  • Goldbricks from a mine in Ghana are packed and sorted for transport. They export about 500,000 ounces of gold in one mine a year.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223010.TIF
  • A scarf and safety best are worn by an Islamic woman truck driver at a copper and gold mine. She drives a truck that has 240 tons of rock that will yield about nine ounces of gold.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1222995.TIF
  • Buses, motor scooters and cars clog the roads under billboards advertising gold wedding jewelry. Buyers are lured in before India's wedding season when sales soar. India is the top gold consumer with buyers collecting for investment as much as adornment.
    MM7339_20080511_02704.tif
  • Headlights illuminate the small passage for illegal mining in an underground shaft on Ashanti Gold land.
    GOLDGHANA_20060925_01190.tif
  • A city bus drives under billboards advertising gold wedding jewelry. Buyers will be lured in before India's wedding season when sales soar. India is the top gold consumer with buyers collecting for investment as much as adornment.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223040.JPG
  • A scarf and safety best are worn by an Islamic woman truck driver at a copper and gold mine. She drives a truck that has 240 tons of rock that will yield about nine ounces of gold.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1222994.JPG
  • Ceiling panel in the Palazzo Vecchio laminated with pure gold leaf on the frames of the religious paintings.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1222979.JPG
  • Pedestrians clog the roads under billboards advertising gold wedding jewelry. Buyers are lured in before India's wedding season when sales soar. India is the top gold consumer with buyers collecting for investment as much as adornment.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223036.JPG
  • Illegal miners sort rock while huddled at their shaft on Ashanti Gold land.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223013.JPG
  • A painting of gold mining and production hangs on a wall at the mine.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223012.TIF
  • A woman receiving a gold facial at a spa which is supposed to give her "glowing" skin.<br />
Gold facials are a luxury procedure for those who can afford it.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1222988.JPG
  • Workers at Rajesh Exports, the largest gold exporter in the world.  A thousand people work in a huge building that resembles a prison. 95 percent of them also live in company housing.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223060.TIF
  • A high wing float plane soars over the water at Batu Hijau gold mine's dedicated port facilities at Benete Bay.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1222953.JPG
  • Gold miners in Kalimantan where one takes a smoke break from the hard work.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223001.JPG
  • A laborer at a copper and gold mine wears protective glasses that reflect other workers.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1222993.JPG
  • Gold miners bathe on the riverbanks of the Pra River. Heavy metals pollute the amalgam pond that they wade and wash in exploring them to high levels of mercury.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223020.JPG
  • A young woman wears her fortune in gold threads in her sari for the wedding.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223039.JPG
  • Illegal mining in an underground shaft on Ashanti Gold land.
    GOLDGHANA_20060925_01280.tif
  • Gold from a mine in Ghana is packed for transport by helicopter. Security is high and guards are armed.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223011.JPG
  • Portrait of a gold miner in Kalimantan wearing protective clothing but his face is caked with splashed mud.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1222996.TIF
  • A Ghanian chief is protected by guards with gold handled swords at a festival in Ghana.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223024.TIF
  • A glowing gold jewelry store in Kolkota reflects sellers in the mirrors who are waiting for customers.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223052.TIF
  • Illegal gold mining on the riverbanks of the Pra River where the landscape is destroyed by crowds digging for precious metal.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223026.JPG
  • Billboards advertising gold jewelry are abundant everywhere in India....in the cities as well as the countryside.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223023.TIF
  • Billboards advertising gold jewelry in the main street where people are reminded of the value in gold that is highly valued and often part of a dowry in the Indian wedding season.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223042.TIF
  • Bars of gold inside the largerst exporter of gold in the world.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1222985.TIF
  • Wearing her fortune, from gold threads in her sari to a priceless heirloom headpiece, she waits to marry. The arranged marriage between two coffee plantation owning families involves a dowry of gold. Indians have more gold than USA reserve system.
    MM7339_20070918_00545.tif
  • Rough hands pressing excess mercury from extracted gold. Miners use mercury to separate gold from rock while they inhale toxic vapors during the refining process. A gram of gold may fetch $35 for a miner while adding a potentially heavy cost to his health including neurological and genetic damage.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1198347.TIF
  • The gold vault at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The Bank holds FIVE percent of the world's 161,000 tons of gold which means they must have over 8,000 tons. <br />
<br />
One of twelve regional capital reserve banks in the system, it is located in the heart of the financial district in downtown Manhattan. Moving gold bars just a few feet from one storage closet to another can shape the balance of financial power between nations.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223063.TIF
  • Gold jewelry on display in a store in Hong Kong.<br />
<br />
Gold is extremely malleable. One ounce can be spread out over 100 square feet. It  is too soft and too scarce for most uses.  Almost ninety percent of gold is used for adornment or money.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223021.TIF
  • Workers wear protective clothing when handling gold from a mine in Ghana as they pack and sort it for transport. Newmont Ghana gold mine pulls about 500,000 ounces a year from this mine.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223009.TIF
  • Wearing her fortune, from gold threads in her sari to a priceless heirloom headpiece, she waits to marry. The arranged marriage between two coffee plantation owning families involves a dowry of gold. Indians have more gold than USA reserve system.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1198342.TIF
  • Indonesian farmers illegally dig for gold undercutting a torn up riverbank in Borneo.<br />
Thousands of workers have left their fields to join Indonesia’s gold rush of artisanal mining for the chance to make five dollars a day.<br />
<br />
Eastern Java has high unemployment, and many migrant workers initially came to Kalimantan to do artisanal timber work. But the government stomped out small operations in favor of two big companies so they could control the industry. All the artisanal timber workers switched to gold. <br />
<br />
Eastern Java is overcrowded and the government has an official transmigration program to Kalimantan. Workers earn more so they camp having access only to water from the amalgam ponds where they bath and drink.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1198340.TIF
  • Gold mining near the town of Quarantesept in northeastern Congo. Hundreds of people from Congo and Uganda come to work at the mines.<br />
<br />
Villagers in the war-weary Ituri region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo scrape for gold in a shaft dug decades ago by a Belgian company. Until recently, armed groups controlled Ituri’s rich mines, using gold to buy weapons.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976457.TIF
  • Women pan for gold in the dust of streets full of garbage. They collect flecks of gold from neighborhood jewelry workshops, prospecting before dawn before official trash collectors arrive to clean the streets of Chennai, India.
    MM7339_20070918_01548.tif
  • A bride wearing gold threads in her sari and a priceless headpiece that is 100 years old and the workmanship places value at approximately $500,000US. Gold involves a dowry in the arranged marriage between two coffee plantation owner families in Chikmagalur, India.
    MM7339_20070918_01050.tif
  • A bride is reflected in a mirror wearing gold threads in her sari and a priceless headpiece. Gold jewelry is part of the dowry in Indian marriages.
    MM7339_20070918_00530.tif
  • Rocks are smashed and washed by hand in search of gold flecks in an old mine tunnel left by Belgians. Miners hold flashlights to see underground when they work.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976460.TIF
  • The gold vault at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, one of twelve regional capital reserve banks in the system and located in the heart of the financial district in downtown Manhattan. <br />
Moving gold bars just a few feet from one storage closet to another can shape the balance of financial power between nations.
    MM7339_20080621_06827.tif
  • Gold bricks  from a mine in Ghana are packed and sorted for transport under armed guards by helicopter.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1198349.JPG
  • The gold vault at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, one of twelve regional capital reserve banks in the system and located in the heart of the financial district in downtown Manhattan. <br />
Moving gold bars just a few feet from one storage closet to another can shape the balance of financial power between nations.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1198346.TIF
  • Billboards advertising gold wedding jewelry luring buyers before India's wedding season when sales soar. India is the top gold consumer with buyers collecting for investment as much as adornment.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1198344.TIF
  • Women pan for gold in the dust of streets full of garbage. They collect flecks of gold from neighborhood jewelry workshops, prospecting before dawn before official trash collectors arrive to clean the streets of Chennai, India.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1198343.TIF
  • Miners use mercury to separate gold from rock while they inhale toxic vapors during the refining process. A gram of gold may fetch $35 for a miner while adding a potentially heavy cost to his health including neurological and genetic damage.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1198341.TIF
  • Fevered by hopes of striking it rich, illegal miners claw sacks of “money stone” –gold ore- from the Pra River in Ghana. Their toll feeds the world’s hunger for gold, and leaves a ruined landscape in its wake.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1198338.TIF
  • Plastic buckets and truck parts are used to prospect for gold.  Small time gold prospecting creates newly carved roads destroying the northeastern Congo in the  Ituri Forest. <br />
<br />
Gold fever is contagious in northeastern Congo, where the metal finances local warlords. Rocks are smashed and washed by hand in search of yellow flecks.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_972266.TIF
  • Lights are strung up in trees above billboards advertising gold jewelry that is highly valued in India.
    MM7339_20070918_01450.tif
  • A jewelry store with a gold chariot built to attract tourists in to shop for luxury items in Hong Kong.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223005.TIF
  • Miners in an amalgam pond mix mercury with ore to separate out the gold. Workers test high levels of mercury after working, bathing and brushing their teeth in the toxic water.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223002.TIF
  • A gold miner in Kalimantan lights a smoke during a break from work.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1222997.TIF
  • A woman receives a gold facial at a Las Vegas spa, the ultimate in decadence to have glowing skin. Gold leaf is rubbed into the pores until it disappears and is absorbed.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1222987.TIF
  • Haul trucks carry rock waste at Batu Hijau, an open pit copper and gold mine. The second largest mine in Indonesia has a tropical monsoonal climate with high rainfall, and an extended arid season with almost no rainfall. Other environmental considerations include significant seismic activity, with the associated risk of tsunamis, and acid rock drainage, not to mention the existence on site of an endangered species, the yellow-crested cockatoo.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1222957.TIF
  • View through a muddy windshield shows trucks hauling waste rock at Batu Hijau, a copper and gold mine located on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa east of Jakarta. Ore is removed from the open-pit mine with electric shovels and haul trucks. Tailings from processing are disposed in the ocean and waste rock in the rainforest raising environmental concerns.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1222956.TIF
  • Aerials of Batu Hijau gold mine and Benete seaport and concentrator and pipeline that takes tailings into ocean trench. Trucks carry 240 tons of rock as they wind their way up through a maze of roads and terraced slopes..
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1222955.TIF
  • Aerial view of Batu Hijau gold mine's dedicated port facilities at Benete Bay on the coast of Sumbawa Island in Indonesia.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1222954.TIF
  • Miners in a pond mixing mercury with ore to separate out the gold. Other miners bathe and brush their teeth in the pond that is laid with mercury. Miners test 1000 ppm and the normal range is 170-300. They earn $5US a day.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1198348.JPG
  • Gold mining in northeastern Congo. Quarantesept and Cinqante are gold mining towns near Ituri forest reserve in DR Congo. Hundreds of people from Congo and Uganda come to work at the mines.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976478.TIF
  • A decadent jewelry store with a gold chariot built to attract tourists who can purchase high quality product more reasonably than in other global markets.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223006.TIF
  • Miners in a pond mix mercury with ore to separate out the gold. Other miners bathe and brush their teeth in the pond that is laid with mercury. Miners test 1000 ppm and the normal range is 170-300. They earn $5US a day.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1222998.TIF
  • A plane flies around clouds over Batu Hijau gold mine's dedicated port facilities at Benete Bay in Indonesia's Sumbawa Island.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1222952.TIF
  • Illegal miners scraping for gold on the riverbanks of the Pra River outside of Prestea, Ghana, Africa.
    GOLDGHANA_20060925_02104.tif
  • A bulldozer works in a slurry of mud pushing rock that is washed at a gold mine near Coldfoot, Alaska. Gold was discovered in 1899 and prosoectors abandoned it five years later. The area was used as a service stop for trucks for the Trans-Alaska Pipeline beside the "haul road" or Dalton Highway to Prudhoe Bay in the North Slope.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6659_705769.jpg
  • Wokers at Rajesh Exports, the largest gold exporter in the world.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223058.TIF
  • Billboards advertising gold jewelry in a bid to woo customers and boost sales. It is an investment and sometimes stores offer discounts to entice Indian buyers during festival seasons.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223038.TIF
  • Billboards advertising gold jewelry in a bid to woo customers and boost sales. It is an investment and sometimes stores offer discounts to entice Indian buyers during festival seasons.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223034.TIF
  • A Ghanian chief protected by guards with gold handled swords.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223025.JPG
  • Workers shovel and dig in an illegal gold mine on the riverbanks of the Pra River. The landscape is devastated in the process of obtaining the precious metal.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223019.TIF
  • Illegal gold mining on the riverbanks of the Pra River in Ghana. They worked in the tailings left by large industrial mines until run out by the military so they moved to riverbanks and work in a ruined landscape.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223018.TIF
  • A headlamp illuminates illegal mining in a shaft on Ashanti Gold land in Ghana.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223015.TIF
  • Miners wear headlamps to negotiate narrow passages underground in an illegal mine shaft on Ashanti Gold land in Ghana.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223014.TIF
  • A woman receives a gold facial at a luxury spa so her skin will slow and look healthy.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1222986.JPG
  • Illegal miners scraping for gold on the riverbanks of the Pra River. The ruined landscape causes environmental damage that is not repaired.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1222970.TIF
  • Illegal gold mining on the riverbanks of the Pra River in Ghana. Miners worked in the tailings left by large industrial mines until run out by the military so they moved to riverbanks and work in a ruined landscape.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1222968.TIF
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