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ANTIOQUIA, COLOMBIA. Date
At a gold mine on the outskirts of Segovia, Antioquia, Colombia, in the region known as El Silencio, approximately 150 freelance gold miners pan for gold in a pit dug by the company which operates this gold mine.
Due to the instability of the stock market, international investors have turned to gold pushing the price to a record of € 1,145 per ounce in 2017. With gold prices at historic highs, gold fever is sweeping across Colombia.
The back hoe is used to scoop up the gold-laden mud, which is then processed by the gold mine using rudimentary machinery
The panning miners are free to sift through the muck that is turned up by the mine, and they often make from 500 – 1000 USD/ month, a reasonable income for the countryside.
These panning miners generally do not use mercury or other chemicals in their process. Rather they rely on their eyes to spot tiny gold nuggets that emerge through the process of sifting and washing the earth in their pans.
Mines like these are taxed by illegal armed groups – either Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas or criminal bands descended from partially demobilized paramilitary militias – throughout the historic gold mining zone of northern Antioquia department. The Colombian government is engaged in a police offensive against such “illegal mines” on the grounds that they are a source of financing for illegal armed groups, and that they contaminate the environment.