Indonesian miners risk their lives and the environment in a modern-day gold rush

Aside from the environmental devastation, the workers there and at many similar sites across Indonesia are risking their health and poisoning communities by illegally using mercury to extract gold.
Mercury can cause serious neurological damage and gold miners who work for years burning the metal develop symptoms such as tremors and persistent coughing. The situation has been described as a “health timebomb” by Professor Marcello Veiga, an expert in the use of mercury in small-scale gold mining at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. “They will die by the thousands,” he said.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2013/10/14/2003574451