Most of us may be aware of the barbaric gold rush, but imagine it is a thing of the past, something that happened far away. But the mindless destruction of human life and the environment continues in Indonesia, Burma, South Africa and many other places where gold is mined. Today, Amazon, the world’s largest rainforest, often called the lungs of the Earth is under immense threat from gold rushes in that region.
Many gold mines employ a process known as heap leaching, which includes dripping a cyanide solution through huge piles of ore. The solution strips away the gold and is collected in a pond, then run through an electro-chemical process to extract the gold. 99.99 percent of the heap becomes waste. At the same time, the cyanide also extracts toxic metals, including cadmium, lead, and mercury. To cut costs, the heaps are often abandoned.
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