Randy Olson, Melissa Farlow Photography

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  • Illegal miners scraping for gold on the riverbanks of the Pra River outside of Prestea, Ghana, Africa.
    GOLDGHANA_20060925_02104.tif
  • Miners in a pond mixing mercury with ore to separate out the gold.
    Gold_20060421_02357.tif
  • Miners in a pond mixing mercury with ore to separate out the gold.
    Gold_20060421_02198.tif
  • Gold miners bathing on the riverbanks of the Pra River.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223020.JPG
  • Miners in a pond mixing mercury with ore to separate out the gold.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223002.TIF
  • Illegal miners scraping for gold on the riverbanks of the Pra River.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1222970.TIF
  • Illegal miners scraping for gold on the riverbanks of the Pra River.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1222968.TIF
  • Miners in a pond mixing mercury with ore to separate out the gold.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1198348.JPG
  • Miners use mercury to separate gold from rock.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1198341.TIF
  • Gold miners in Kalimantan.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223001.JPG
  • Miners in a pond mixing mercury with ore to separate out the gold.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1222998.TIF
  • Illegal miners and their shaft on Ashanti Gold land.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223013.JPG
  • Turkish coal miners enjoy a break from their hard work.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6879_708205.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
  • Illegal miner scraping for gold on the riverbanks of the Pra River.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1222969.TIF
  • A miner works his way through a jumble of logs in an underground mine.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6689_702538.JPG
  • A gold miner in Kalimantan.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1222996.TIF
  • A gold miner blasts soil into a sluice with a water hose.
    RANDY OLSON_MM6570_706636.JPG
  • A gold miner in Kalimantan.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1222997.TIF
  • Coal dust flies up as a bulldozer scoops up coal and miners shovel by hand at a mine in West Virginia. The Gordon Justice & Mac Hauling coal mine is small compared to massive mountaintop removal mining operations.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_1023664.jpg
  • Men fixing mining equipment in a muddy pit.
    Gold_20060421_01800.tif
  • Men fixing mining equipment in a muddy pit.
    Gold_20060421_01868.tif
  • Men fixing mining equipment in a muddy pit.
    Gold_20060421_01822.tif
  • Men fixing mining equipment in a muddy pit.
    Gold_20060421_01814.tif
  • Men fixing mining equipment in a muddy pit.
    Gold_20060421_01818.tif
  • Men fixing mining equipment in a muddy pit.
    Gold_20060421_01790.tif
  • Men fixing mining equipment in a muddy pit.
    Gold_20060421_01781.tif
  • Miners sweep dirt and rock from a coal seam at a small mining operation.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_1023641.jpg
  • Rocks are smashed and washed by hand in search of gold flecks.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976460.TIF
  • A gold mining village near Cinquante.
    RANDY OLSON_RF4319_1114396.JPG
  • Gold mining in northeastern Congo.
    RANDY OLSON_RF4319_1114394.JPG
  • A gold mining village near Cinquante.
    RANDY OLSON_RF4319_1114392.JPG
  • Illegal gold mining on the riverbanks of the Pra River.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223019.TIF
  • Illegal gold mining on the riverbanks of the Pra River.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223018.TIF
  • Illegal mining in a shaft on Ashanti Gold land.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223015.TIF
  • Workers repairing a sluice box.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223000.JPG
  • Workers repairing a sluice box.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1222999.TIF
  • A man fixing mining equipment in a muddy pit.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1222961.TIF
  • Migrant goldmine workers in Kalimantan.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1222959.JPG
  • Gold mining in northeastern Congo.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976458.TIF
  • Gold mining in northeastern Congo.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976457.TIF
  • A gold mining town in northeastern Congo.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976456.TIF
  • Workers smelt nickel in heavy polluting, antiquated factories.
    RANDY OLSON_06396_663869.JPG
  • Taxi ride in Norilsk Siberia on our way to the Putorana Plateau with the Russian Geographic Society. The smokestacks are from Norilsk Nickel that produces 8 percent of all the pollution in Russia. The trees south of this plant are barren and dead.
    ngs0_3466.tif
  • Illegal mining in a shaft on Ashanti Gold land.
    GOLDGHANA_20060925_01280.tif
  • Illegal mining in a shaft on Ashanti Gold land.
    GOLDGHANA_20060925_01214.tif
  • Illegal mining in a shaft on Ashanti Gold land.
    GOLDGHANA_20060925_01190.tif
  • Gold mining in northeastern Congo.
    RANDY OLSON_RF4319_1114395.JPG
  • A photographer on assignment at a gold mine in Ghana.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223065.TIF
  • Illegal gold mining on the riverbanks of the Pra River.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223026.JPG
  • Illegal mining in a shaft on Ashanti Gold land.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223014.TIF
  • A painting of gold mining and production.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1223012.TIF
  • Illegal gold mining on the riverbanks of the Pra River.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1198352.TIF
  • Rough hands pressing excess mercury from extracted gold.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1198347.TIF
  • Indonesian farmers illegally digging for gold on a torn up riverbank.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1198340.TIF
  • Illegal gold mining on the banks of the Pra River outside of Prestea.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1198338.TIF
  • Gold mining in northeastern Congo.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_976478.TIF
  • Activist Larry Gibson lead two friends to a knoll in the family cemetery on Kayford Mountain to view a sprawling  mountaintop removal mine. Like a cancerous mutation of strip mining, entire mountaintops are blasted away to obtain a small seam of coal. Unwanted rock is pushed into valleys and streams, destroying natural watersheds, leaving no vegetation, and turning the terrain into unusable land.<br />
More than 300 of Gibson’s relatives are buried in the cemetery and his family has lived on Kayford since the late 1700’s.<br />
<br />
Since 1986, there has been a slow motion, continuous destruction of the mountain—24 hours a day, seven days a week. Gibson occupied the highest point of land around, surrounded by a 12,000-acre level plot of land that was previously a mountain range.<br />
Over the years, Gibson was intimidated, harassed, and threatened by mining company employees for holding out. He remained outspoken against mountaintop removal.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_996225.jpg
  • Mountaintop removal involves miners setting up explosive charges at a small coal mine operating in West Virginia. The top of the mountain is blown off with sticks of dynamite in order to obtain a small seam of coal.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_1023663.jpg
  • Crushed minerals are dusted over a Hamar girl   s hair.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7661_1283982.TIF
  • Clothes hang from the ceiling while miners shower after their shift.
    MELISSA FARLOW_RF4115_1114501.jpg
  • Tags identifying miners hang on a numbered board in a display of old equipment at the AJ Gastineau Mill gold mine. Gold was discovered in Juneau at what is now known as Gold Creek, in 1880 and AJ was constructed in 1913 and shut down in 1921. Over the years, the mine recovered 500,00 ounces of gold from 12 million tons of ore.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075109.jpg
  • A man walks down the road in Tom Biggs Hollow in Letcher County, Kentucky, while his great grandchildren play nearby.<br />
Lucious Thompson, who lives in nearby Tom Biggs Hollow, joined Kentuckians for the Commonwealth when he found his land disrupted from above. “There’s good mining and there’s bad mining,” Mr. Thompson said. “Mountaintop removal takes the coal quick, 24 hours every day, making my streams disappear, with the blasting knocking a person out of bed and the giant ‘dozers beep-beeping all night so you cannot sleep.”<br />
<br />
Mr. Thompson spoke with the authority of a retired underground miner. Underground miners led quieter, more pastoral lives above harsh, deep workplaces that were far out of sight. Now, the hollow dwellers have become witnesses more than miners as a fast-moving, high-volume process uses mammoth machinery to decapitate the coal-rich hills.<br />
<br />
“They make monster funnels of our villages,” said Carroll Smith, judge-executive, the top elected official, here in Letcher County, the location of some of the worst flooded hollows adjoining mountaintop removal sites. “They haven’t been a real good neighbor at all.”<br />
<br />
With underground mining, coal miners led quieter, more pastoral lives above harsh workplaces deep in the ground and far out of sight. With mountaintop removal, a fast, high-volume process that uses mammoth machinery to decapitate the coal-rich hills that help define the hollows, the residents have become witnesses more than miners.<br />
<br />
New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/11/national/11MINE.html
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_1023679.jpg
  • Tourists explore the salt flats near San Pedro, in the Atacama Desert. Salar de Atacama is surrounded by mountains, and has no drainage outlets. Water evaporates leaving small deposits of crusted salt.
    MELISSA FARLOW_04526_1187558.jpg
  • A woman receiving a gold facial.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1222988.JPG
  • A woman receiving a gold facial.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1222986.JPG
  • A woman receiving a gold facial.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7339_1222987.TIF
  • Aerial view shows snow that accentuates the contours of a flattened, freshly cut mountaintop removal site in Cabin Creek, West Virginia. Mountaintop removal is a mining practice where the tops of mountains are blasted away to expose the seams of coal underneath.<br />
As much as 500 feet or more of a mountain summit may be leveled. The earth and rock from the mountaintop is then dumped into the neighboring valleys.<br />
Analysis from a study that Appalachian Voices commissioned along with Natural Resources Defense Council  shows that 1.2 million acres have been mined for coal. “Over 500 mountains have been leveled, and nearly 2,000 miles of precious Appalachian headwater streams have been buried and polluted by mountaintop removal.”
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_1023729-2.JPG
  • Elevated view of a small mine operation finding coal after a larger company left. The owner of this operation stated that "One man's trash is another man's treasure." His equipment works on a mountain top coal mine.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_1023730.jpg
  • Snow accents the contours of a fresh valley fill at a coal mine site. Tops of mountains are blasted away and flattened to reveal a small seam of coal, and the rock and debris is dumped into V-shaped valleys filling in stream beds.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_1023727.jpg
  • Aerial view of Hobet 21 mountain top removal coal mining site looms over one of the few remaining houses in Mud, W.V. Once this was a quiet rural community, but mining companies can legally come within 100 feet of a family cemetery and 300 feet from a home and they run 24 hours a day and seven days a week. <br />
Hobet 21 once produced about 5.2 million tons of coal, making it among the largest surface mines in the state. The Lincoln County mine expanded to fill in Connelly Branch creek, and after the company was bankrupt in 2015, the site was passed on to another firm who continued mining.<br />
The town of Mud hasn’t been much of a community in the couple of decades since the post office closed, but in 1998 around 60 residents remained. They had two churches and a ball field. In early 1997, Big John, the mine’s 20-story dragline, moved above Mud and more houses, near this one, were bought and destroyed.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_1023701.jpg
  • Bulldozers push rocks into hills attempting to reclaim the land after coal mining at a mountaintop removal mining site. This small mine site dwarfs the equipment so they look like toys.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_1023667.jpg
  • Below a mountaintop removal mine site, a stream filled with sediment and coal silt washed into a backyard swimming pool making it unusable.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_1023659.jpg
  • Aerial view of dust surrounding a heavy drag line that scoops coal at a mountain mining site.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_1023645.jpg
  • Aerial view of the Samples Mine mountain top removal coal mining site. A dragline removes overburden after mountains are dynamited to get to a small seam of coal.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_1023644.jpg
  • Aerial view of snow covered mountain top removal mining site. After blasting the top of a mountain, trucks remove debris dumping dirt and rock into valleys and streams destroying watersheds. Over 1,000 miles of Appalachian streams have been buried and 300,000 acres of diverse temperate hardwood forests obliterated with valley hills like the white V in the foreground. Pollution from toxic chemicals fill sludge ponds and in flooding, contaminate drinking water. A moonscape of unusable land is left.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_996789.jpg
  • Bulldozers fill trucks with excess rock at a small mountaintop removal site in Man, West Virginia, where a small crew is mining coal in a site in Logan County that was left by a large coal company as rubble. Mine operator Gordon Justice said, "One man's trash is another man's treasure."<br />
<br />
Large mining operations are only visible from the air, although coal and debris are removed using enormous earth-moving machines known as draglines that stand 22 stories tall and can hold 24 compact cars in its bucket. The machines can cost up to $100 million, but are favored by coal companies because they can do the work of hundreds of employees. A small operation like this one can keep 17 employees working for five years and making good wages.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_996257.jpg
  • Aerial view shows snow that accentuates the contours of a flattened, freshly cut mountaintop removal site in Cabin Creek, West Virginia. Mountaintop removal is a mining practice where the tops of mountains are blasted away to expose the seams of coal underneath.<br />
As much as 500 feet or more of a mountain summit may be leveled. The earth and rock from the mountaintop is then dumped into the neighboring valleys.<br />
Analysis from a study that Appalachian Voices commissioned along with Natural Resources Defense Council  shows that 1.2 million acres have been mined for coal. “Over 500 mountains have been leveled, and nearly 2,000 miles of precious Appalachian headwater streams have been buried and polluted by mountaintop removal.”
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_1023729-1.JPG
  • A worker steps inside a giant dragline bucket used to mine coal from Black Thunder, the largest surface coal mine in the U.S. located in Wyoming's Powder River Basin. The bucket holds 170 cubic yards of coal that is extracted, processed, then loaded onto trains. Almost 100 million tons of low sulphur coal is shipped from this surface mine to power plants.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6659_705729-7.JPG
  • A truck dumps rock over the edge of a cliff creating a valley fill at a mountain top removal coal mine.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_1023731.jpg
  • Aerial view shows snow that accentuates the contours of a flattened, freshly cut mountaintop removal site in Cabin Creek, West Virginia. Mountaintop removal is a mining practice where the tops of mountains are blasted away to expose the seams of coal underneath.<br />
As much as 500 feet or more of a mountain summit may be leveled. The earth and rock from the mountaintop is then dumped into the neighboring valleys.<br />
Analysis from a study that Appalachian Voices commissioned along with Natural Resources Defense Council  shows that 1.2 million acres have been mined for coal. “Over 500 mountains have been leveled, and nearly 2,000 miles of precious Appalachian headwater streams have been buried and polluted by mountaintop removal.”
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_1023729.jpg
  • Aerial view of a drag line that scrapes through rock after a explosives blast away the top of mountains. A fresh snow contrasts the blackened coal that is revealed. Mountaintop removal mining devastates the landscape, turning areas that should be lush with forests and wildlife into barren moonscapes.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_1023728.jpg
  • Bulldozers line up to scrape layers of coal that are loaded into trucks at a mountain top removal mine site.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_1023725.jpg
  • Aerial view of mountain top removal coal mining site and V-shaped valley fills that create a moonscape of unusable land. Roughly 1.2 million acres, including 500 mountains, have been flattened by mountaintop removal coal mining in the central Appalachian region, and only a fraction of that land has been reclaimed for so-called beneficial economic use.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_1023699.jpg
  • Rock is dumped down a ridge into a valley at a mountain top coal mining site. Explosives are used to blow up the top of a mountain, and debris is hauled away in order to obtain a small seam of coal. 1000 miles of Appalachian stream beds have been filled in.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_1023666.jpg
  • Coal dust hangs in the air as a truck hauls rock out of the site to dump in into a valley fill.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_1023665.jpg
  • Sediment pond at the bottom of a valley fill that overflowed after a heavy rain at a  mountaintop removal mining site. Over 1000 miles of stream beds have been filled in with rock and debris where water flowed freely into rivers. Flooding occurs where it has not in the past, and sediment fills sources of drinking water.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_1023656.jpg
  • Plastic covers a stockpile of coal at Elk Run Mining Company processing plant. The town of Sylvester was covered in black coal dust causing health issues as it seeped inside homes.In 2001, Sylvester residents filed a lawsuit against Elk Run Mining for damages to property.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_1023646.jpg
  • Aerial view of Hobet 21, a large mountaintop removal mine site was among the largest coal surface mines in West Virginia. The Lincoln County mine ran 24 hours a day, seven days a week expanding over hills and valleys, filling in Connelly Branch creek. At its peak in 2002, the mine produced 5 million pounds of coal in one year. After the company was bankrupt in 2015, the site was passed on to a conservation firm who continued mining.<br />
A lone house sits beside Mud River in the shadow of the mine's encroaching path. The town of Mud hasn’t been much of a community in the couple of decades since the post office closed, and in 1998 around 60 residents remained. They had two churches and a ball field. In early 1997, Big John, the mine’s 20-story dragline, moved above Mud and more houses, near this one, were bought and destroyed.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6773_996269.jpg
  • A large industrial mining truck carries a load of coal from Black Thunder, the largest surface mine in the U.S. Located in the Powder River Basin in Wyoming, the mine extracts coal that is transported by rail to power plants in the East.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6659_705780.jpg
  • A piece of mining equipment of behemoth proportions operates at a surface coal mining site, Black Thunder, the largest surface coal mine in the U.S.   Located in Wyoming's Powder River Basin, the dragline bucket holds 170 cubic yards of coal that is extracted, processed, then loaded onto trains. Almost 100 million tons of low sulpher coal is shipped from this surface mine to power plants.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6659_705778.jpg
  • Plastic buckets and truck parts are used to prospect for gold.
    RANDY OLSON_MM7209_972266.TIF
  • Tourists pass through steam of Grand Prismatic Spring.
    RANDY OLSON_06103_495692.JPG
  • Morning fog fills the valley between snowy, white peaks of the stark and rugged San Juan Mountains. Shafts of silver, not sunlight, lured miners into Colorado's wilderness where now rugged trails form the Alpine Loop, a Bureau of Land Management back country byway with more than a glimmer of mountain splendor.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6659_705729-25.JPG
  • Fog fills the valley surrounding snowy, white peaks of the stark and rugged San Juan Mountains. Shafts of silver, not sunlight, lured miners into Colorado's wilderness where now rugged trails form the Alpine Loop, a Bureau of Land Management back country byway with more than a glimmer of mountain splendor.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6659_705729-24.JPG
  • Sunlight illuminates stands of golden aspen trees below the stark and rugged San Juan Mountains. Snow clouds build as late fall comes to Colorado’s wilderness and Populus tremuloides displays brilliant color. Shafts of silver, not sunlight, lured miners into the steep mountains near Telluride.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6659_705729-17.JPG
  • Stallions enter a trap during a wild mustang roundup. Airborne wranglers working in helicopters with the Bureau of Land Management corral a thirsty herd of mustangs in Eureka, Nevada. Wild horses compete with wildlife and livestock for water and forage. <br />
An estimated 85,000 wild horses roam western lands, many are descendants of Spanish horses brought to the New World in the 1500's. In the 1800's the Spanish stock began to mix with European horses favored by the settlers, trappers and miners that had escaped or were turned out by their owners. Adoption programs and horse sanctuaries are attempts to provide homes for the once wild horses.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6659_680963-5.JPG
  • Stallions enter a trap during a wild mustang roundup. Airborne wranglers working in helicopters with the Bureau of Land Management corral a thirsty herd of mustangs in Eureka, Nevada. Wild horses compete with wildlife and livestock for water and forage. <br />
An estimated 85,000 wild horses roam western lands, many are descendants of Spanish horses brought to the New World in the 1500's. In the 1800's the Spanish stock began to mix with European horses favored by the settlers, trappers and miners that had escaped or were turned out by their owners. Adoption programs and horse sanctuaries are attempts to provide homes for the once wild horses.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6659_680963-2.JPG
  • Stallions enter a trap during a wild mustang roundup. Airborne wranglers working in helicopters with the Bureau of Land Management corral a thirsty herd of mustangs in Eureka, Nevada. Wild horses compete with wildlife and livestock for water and forage. <br />
An estimated 85,000 wild horses roam western lands, many are descendants of Spanish horses brought to the New World in the 1500's. In the 1800's the Spanish stock began to mix with European horses favored by the settlers, trappers and miners that had escaped or were turned out by their owners. Adoption programs and horse sanctuaries are attempts to provide homes for the once wild horses.
    MELISSA FARLOW_MM6659_680963-1.JPG
  • 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
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