mary. the. d.l. solenn c.e.o. mine is absolute proof of what human ambition is capable of in order to satisfy its hunger for gold.

it spreads out into forty four levels under the earth is the oldest mine in colombia and the second deepest in latin america. where. it is two thousand five hundred meters deep that those and their underground galleries of over four thousand meters in all the tunnels combined are over eight hundred kilometers long. or to see at the moment the. else alessio is a giant underground labyrinth of complex tunnels here one thousand one hundred people work and you really have to know where you're going.

this is the vein. here is where the gold is found from here on down and here on up. sometimes it is of interest sometimes not. because the concentration is. what really interests this is this the fam. five hundred meters under the surface of the earth the atmosphere is us fix heat humidity and make it hard to breathe. level eighteen is the deepest you can get. from levels one thousand to forty four

everything is flooded. half the mine is under water and dozens of pumps are trying to pull the water up to the surface. even in this state however. produces about seven kilos of gold a month. this is considered to be a typical global gold the pause it and at the present moment is one of the best in colombia. gold is the barometer of fear. in the midst of the two thousand and eleven coble economic crisis on the twenty second of august it hit

a historic high of one thousand eight hundred eighty nine dollars an ounce. an almost unbelievable price considering that ten years ago this much gold cost only two hundred seventy one dollars. today colombia is one of the countries with the largest gold production in south america and one of the most important gold producers in the world. in two thousand and ten it produced approximately fifty four tons while it is estimated that there are still enormous unexplored reserves because of the. geological knowledge of the country is still limited. but according to research of national interest me talking about forty one thousand tonnes of gold bearing posits what it then all of these can be developed it with. colombia is suffering

from gold rush fever. in no other country of the world is this happening in a more intense way.

i think there are people here who have come from all over the country not just from one of insurer but from the entire country but that is because gold is money it's wealth it's peace for the family it's food. how life has changed one hundred percent but at least for me the mine has changed my life one hundred percent because before i lived next to the national road you know about it. and at the moment that what i see them and now i have a house in one of and tura and now i don't depend on the government to send me five

thousand pesos instead of them sending it i got to find gold and many times i earn over one hundred thousand pesos in place because it's a little so this is what we look for the minute they chase us away. hunger will hit one of ventura what will come everything will come.

there are much bigger players beyond the ordinary gold diggers trying to survive. drawn by the high prices of gold they claim the lion's share of the country's legendary gold bearing deposits. they are made up of the multinationals and the government the guerrillas the former paramilitaries and the drug cartels. the hunt for gold in colombia along with cocaine fuels the country's civil war which has been raging for over forty years.

my motto is a gold mining town. it resembles a building site choked with noise and dust. lorries motorcycles and donkeys loaded with people and metal oars jostle each other in the narrow streets. buckets fly over the residence bringing down the precious earth from the minds of the mountain. mills

work around the clock. grey waterfalls rushed down its slopes with water polluted by cyanide the waste product of processing poisoning the reverse. my motto is a rich yet filthy place hundreds of generations have dug up the ground here the first being the indigenous peoples of the pre-columbian period the spanish and slave them and put them to work in dark passages my motto is one of the oldest gold mining sites in south america. was the fourth oldest municipality in the country it was established in fifteen thirty six traditionally it has been a mining town. it is no exaggeration but the ten thousand

citizens of this region live on top of a golden mountain. here on elbow estimates say that approximately nine point eight million ounces of the precious metal is hidden within its bowels. almost everyone here is from a family of gold diggers. people trying to make a living surviving as their ancestors did by digging with chisels and pickaxes deep into the earth. this is the oil we look for in the mine and it has pyrite in it and everything here in the mine you can see it but when it goes through the mill then the gold comes out. ruben is the owner of this mine along with thirty eight of his fellow countryman. he provides employment to forty five

families. there are four hundred fifty mines and some legal some illegal. our tradition is to become miners and we always like the money our work in the mines earns us money my wages are three hundred sixty thousand every fifteen days we live on this me and my wife thank god since we are poor we live well on this. my father but also my brother are involved in the mines. yes and since i started working in the mine i stayed here. i. think a lot of the. culture is that so much about the taxpayers' money maintaining it is a shame to be thought of people as areas to rise or fall civilizations for over

a century they've been pretty good chance of western decline given the global financial crisis that started in two thousand it.

the in. the world he.

thank. you paula. my motto did not go unnoticed by the big multinational companies such as canada's gran colombia gold and its subsidiary madore resources. you know

me i will say my name is jose oro and i am vice president of the company it honestly i have a commitment to the people to development for me this plan and my motto is very important because we must create jobs to give food to the people believed in him and this is part of our duty and our ethics yes with by the sea and with him it will do it you know. the company's plan is to blow up the top of the gold mountain and create an open pit mine and order to have access to all the deposits from the top to the very bottom.

in this way annual gold production could be as much as eight tons rather than the seven hundred twenty six kilos currently produced. according to today's price this would be worth about five hundred million dollars. and this is one of the alternative techniques you know as you know we had to but it could become an open pit mine very beautiful very modern. the. polling current and future environmental laws it's not that we're opening an

enormous hole which looks like a giant volcano. we're working plot by plugging in restoring as we go along because. there are parts which can't be restored well so there we make a nice little lake and add some fish when most other places we fix up with rock in the us a road is created for endangered species to pass in the bases. in other words you must have alternatives and be creative. when i have a mines the holes a gigantic what that holds four hundred to one thousand one hundred meters deep which cover a large areas. what made you have when i open a hole i think i must make an artificial mountain have to break let's. see. if it's raining at last the dilution will spread to a much greater area. and many aquatic ecosystems rivers

lakes will be destroyed. ok and if i think that in this country gold medal as an environmental cost which is unacceptable. but in order for the company's plan to be implemented the town of moore motto which was declared in one thousand nine hundred two a national historic site of columbia must be a race from the map. and we're going to remove the tell must be moved we must move the town this is something very typical in metallurgy moody and. i'm seventy years old with it why should i leave here there is no one chasing me out. to live this down it doesn't just have material wealth like gold and silver but video. that for

us it symbolizes a lot just get bored and we don't believe that for the economic ambitions of people who aren't even colombians we should disappear so they can come to mine the gold killing a town which has survived with will be as a baby. because when. it goes from there are people who are indigenous who are confused politically because they have been told that capitalism is coming and will destroy them above all we can't have a dialogue with the deaf. and. it's exactly like that it's a struggle of capital. capitalism will look at work against a people that do nothing else except work and contribute to the state is going to

be with the multinationals do their work. without leaving the country anything. i think that when we must take into consideration that mining development. in the represents two percent of the g.d.p. number that and if we're talking about resources revenues from foreign investments are important to put in prison if. he's only. then so exports sport as you know which bring revenues to the state. and allow the funding of programs for poverty but. everything is part of a balancing act. in business where in two thousand and nine state revenues from metallurgy well one point nine three billion pesos basis. tax breaks were one point seven five and fuel subsidies point two four billion.

profits were less than the tax breaks and subsidies. anything that's given to the mining corporations so how much money is left over and. why develop the creation of an open pit mine and not prove the conditions for miners. it would come in because it's slow economically rimmel it's a question of cost it's a fantasy your goals. because you know what's happening. let's say we improve the conditions of small miners and they produce that one thousand two hundred dollars an ounce. when the prices fall it's all over. so they're like sleeping. in it once they see good mate when they attack. this happened about it they came to the gold towns to work saying they contribute to sustainable development they need and this sustainable development has destroyed towns and peoples i think the problem is we must talk to the people here we should

have the direct presence of high level executives the able do so to baptize a kid one day so that we can say we love them look at me because our god made us all you will. because we should begin humanitarian work. and if they say no. no no they'll accept bill except logic is always imposed some of them will be more difficult than others. and some might even go to extremes. if they don't accept the laws of colombia must be applied. else alessio mine began operating in eight hundred fifty two. it was the year that

the british company frontino gold mines was the stablished in the area bringing with it the steam engine and the telegraph. the workers of the company built their accommodation close to the mine creating a new town signal via. today said go via has a population of forty thousand. which is a lively hot dirty and dangerous town. to go via lives by the rhythms of hundreds of metal mills operating nonstop.

it is filled with casinos bars prostitutes and dozens of gold shops. much gold goes through your shop every day. a. woman is wrong five hundred to fifteen hundred grams to. see how much is that in terms of money. on. then. fifty thousand dollars. about one hundred million place us.

seventy five percent of the gold in colombia is produced in this area. you. said will you stick with we will go via has been built on one of the largest natural resources of latin america with a couple of local one in it if it is considered one of the largest gold reserves in

south america. let's go to the state has long abandoned so go via the moon but. also companies didn't help society here at all with road building this is the supply of water education i mean anything. with a. do we speak your language i mean some of the will not advance. good news programs and documentaries and spanish what matters to you breaking news a little turn to tip angles kittens stories. or you hear. detroit altie spanish find out more visit i to allahabad all tito it's calm.

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