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The price of gold is higher than it has been in 17 years - pushing $500 an ounce. But much of the gold left to be mined is microscopic and is being wrung from the earth at enormous environmental cost, often in some of the poorest corners of the world.

Large-scale mining development and militarization in the Cordillera is condemned by the region's indigenous peoples.

This past Christmas, while children around the world wrote letters to Santa Claus whom they believed would deliver presents to them in a sleigh drawn by the mythical Rudolph, the actual human companions of the Arctic reindeer spent their holidays worrying about Beowulf, a British mining company.

G. Philip Stephenson does not cut the figure of an Eastern European oil baron, clashing with formerly communist security officials over the legality of his budding empire.

Nigerian soldiers guarding Chevron oil rigs billed the company for $109.25 a day after they allegedly attacked two villages in the volatile country, killing four people and setting fire to homes.

On June 22 the second International Indigenous Youth Conference (IIYC) released several resolutions and declarations aiming to stop the destructive impacts of globalization on indigenous lands, cultures, and peoples.

A proposal to "relocate" three Andean glaciers to mine for gold has local people up in arms. This billion dollar development could destroy a major source of clean water on the border of Argentina and Chile.

 
Julia Guarniz, a street vendor in the Peruvian highland village of 
Choropampa, watches blankly as a seven-vehicle convoy thunders past. "They scare 
me," she says, pointing at the "hazardous materials" signs on the sides of the 
juggernauts. "When I see them, I worry that it might happen again."
Similar convoys carry toxic material through the village several times a day 
on the degraded highway that runs 600km from Yanacocha, the world's most 
productive gold mine, to the port of Callao in Lima.

P

ERTH
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Just days after AngloGold Ashanti fended off allegations of paying
bribes to militia groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Anvil
Mining has come under intense scrutiny over its supply of
air and ground transport to the DRC army for an operation that led to
the alleged slaughter of more than 100 people last October.


It is understood the government requested the use of Anvil's air
services and land vehicles to help mobilise Congolese troops to Kilwa,

FBI chief Louis Freeh met with Czech Interior Minister Stanislav Gross to finalize arrangements and discuss an agenda for the joint US-Czech project, which is to include at least one agent and an administrative force. Although the training and intelligence gathering center is supposed to be fighting organized crime, the Central and Eastern European Review reports that one of the ''main topics of discussion during Freeh's visit was the upcoming joint IMF/World Bank annual meeting in Prague in September.''

"Bolivia has natural gas, water, coca and all kinds of natural resources," said one activist. "But the problem is that they keep stealing it from us."

As deforestation erodes rural life, a priest has taken on the timber industry and forced an unofficial freeze. Critics call him inflexible.

Centennial Coal is attempting buy 'people's opinions and right to free speech' with its property purchase contracts for a new mine, according Greenpeace and a local residents group.