Randy Olson, Melissa Farlow Photography

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  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • A man fixes mining equipment in a muddy pit in a search for gold in Borneo. Such operations leave a devastated landscape and miners test high for mercury earning about $5US a day.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1222961.TIF
  • Men work on mining equipment in a muddy pit while searching for gold in Borneo. Such operations leave a devastated landscape and miners test high for mercury earning about $5US a day.
    Gold_20060421_01868.tif
  • A man fixes mining equipment in a muddy pit in a search for gold in Borneo. Such operations leave a devastated landscape and miners test high for mercury earning about $5US a day.
    Gold_20060421_01818.tif
  • Men fixing mining equipment in a muddy pit where waste from the gold mining operation is collected. Amalgam ponds have high readings of mercury, yet workers bath and brush their teeth in the water.
    Gold_20060421_01814.tif
  • Men work on mining equipment in a muddy pit in a search for gold in Borneo. Such operations leave a devastated landscape and miners test high for mercury earning about $5US a day.
    Gold_20060421_01790.tif
  • A man fixes mining equipment in a muddy pit in a search for gold in Borneo. Such operations leave a devastated landscape and miners test high for mercury earning about $5US a day.
    Gold_20060421_01781.tif
  • Miners traveled underground in Idrija, Slovenia for 500 years to mine mercury.  Now with little need for the metal, the mine closed leaving an environmental nightmare. A small crew works to fill in the tunnels to keep heavy metals run off from polluting groundwater. Men take showers after their shift and hang their clothes on hooks.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7139_985667.TIF
  • Men stand on a bamboo structure fixing mining equipment in a muddy amalgam pit they use to sluice gold..
    Gold_20060421_01800.tif
  • Men work ar a mine in a muddy pit and ruined landscape trying to repair broken equipment in Indonesia.
    Gold_20060421_01822.tif
  • A 2.8 billion gallon sludge pond of toxic chemicals and heavy metals sits above a community in West Virginia. Aerial view of the coal slurry that contains elevated levels of chlorides, sulfates, arsenic, lead, mercury, and selenium. Coal companies dispose of coal cleaning process creating a slurry in massive impoundments which are hundreds of feet deep and have failed or overflowed. Coal slurry impoundments represent a major threat to public health andaquatic organisms due to potential contamination of groundwater and streams.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_1023726.jpg
  • Slurry pond filled with toxic brew of heavy metals from coal washing can only be seen from the air. Dams hold back thick sludge with heavy metals such as arsenic, mercury, and lead that routinely overflow into watersheds, contaminate drinking water, and drive toxic sludge into residents’ backyards.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_1023651.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
  • Men walk near a coal slurry pond where cattle died after drinking water. Heavy metals such as arsenic, mercury and lead contaminate water and is a threat to human health and livestock.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_1023653.jpg
  • Polluted water seeps from a coal refuse dump that when tested, reveals a toxic witches brew of arsenic, mercury, and other heavy metals and chemicals. The orange appearance is from high iron in the water which can cause diabetes, hemochromatosis, stomach problems, and nausea. It can also damage the liver, pancreas, and heart.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_996237.jpg