About a quarter of Ecuador’s gold exports from small-scale mining in 2023 originated from just three companies: Rockgolden, Rocadorada and Soul Metals. Their exports of $268 million in gold just…
In recent decades, the electronics industry experienced meteoric growth as it swiftly invented and marketed a galaxy of novel products for consumers hungry for the next innovation, better performance and…
STUNG TRENG, Cambodia — It was late in the afternoon of Sept. 16 when Ouk Mao finally answered his phone. The environmental journalist had spent much of that Monday making…
Widely regarded as a solution for climate change, renewable energy projects are booming in Southeast Asia. Installed solar and wind energy capacity across the 10 member states of the Association…
MEXICO CITY — A mining company trying to launch a controversial phosphate project in Mexican waters has won a lawsuit against the country claiming officials wrongfully rejected its environmental permits,…
Permits granted for the construction of an industrial mining project in northern Colombia are raising concerns among residents and conservationists, who say they might lose their food and drinking water…
This is the second of a two-part story. Part one deals with aluminum and steel impacts; Part two explores circular solutions. Aluminum and steel have long been hailed for their…
This is the first part of a two-part story. Part one deals with aluminum and steel impacts; Part two explores circular solutions. Aluminum and steel are two metals vital to…
SOUTH COTABATO, Philippines — On a sunny Wednesday in August, police officer Loreto Malon and a subordinate were riding their motorcycles in the mountain mining village of Ned on their…
POHUWATO, Indonesia — Lukman Ahmad managed in the end to drag himself down from the slopes of Mount Pani toward the southern coast of Indonesia’s Pohuwato district. When he staggered…
During the second week of October 2023, in northern Chile’s Coquimbo, Yasna Silva used social media to ask for help. She and her entire family had been sued by the…
The activities of wildcat miners in the Pan Amazon has become an increasing issue of concern over the past five years; in part, because their numbers have exploded, but also…
In January 2023, two men mysteriously disappear after speaking out against pollution from a controversial iron ore mine in Michoacán, Mexico. The following March, climate change protesters in Austria and…
Following regulatory changes and heavier enforcement of the gold trade, the Amazonian municipality of Itaituba, notorious as Brazil’s illegal gold capital, is struggling to deal with the new restrictions.
In January 2023, the federal government of the United States issued landmark decisions affecting two controversial projects to exploit mineral resources on public lands. One was an industrial-scale copper mine,…
JAKARTA — A controversial zinc-and-lead mine being developed on the Indonesian island of Sumatra has hit a roadblock after the country’s Supreme Court ordered the revocation of its environmental permit.…
STUNG TRENG, Cambodia — Rain poured down in torrential sheets as Ouk Mao guided reporters through the winding dirt tracks that were, in August, rutted with deep trenches of mud and…
That amounts to 1.5 metric tons of the precious metal in 2023, sourced from wildcat mines known as garimpos, which have a long history of illegality and opaqueness.
A deep-sea mining operation that recently took place off the coast of Papua New Guinea (PNG) has raised alarm bells for environmentalists and called into question the validity of the…
PACITAN, Indonesia — Indonesia’s mining ministry has ordered a suspension of operations at a controversial copper mine on Java Island following claims by local farmers that it was responsible for…
With the past 10 years, the hottest on record, and four days in July the hottest ever recorded, the climate emergency is coming ever more into focus. Directly linked to…
In 2004, nomadic herders in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert faced a daunting prospect. One of the world’s largest copper-gold mines, Oyu Tolgoi, was settling in, and herder communities were being forced…
APAMPRAMA, Ghana — Since 2017, the Ghanaian government has aggressively pursued small-scale miners operating in forest reserves across the country, blaming them for the destruction of the country’s forests. But…
In 2022, the West African nation of Ghana lost 18,000 hectares, or 44,500 acres, of forests — an area the size of 30,000 football fields. But instead of strengthening restrictions,…
JAKARTA — For the first time since it declared independence in 1945, Indonesia held its official national day celebrations outside Jakarta this year. Flag-raising ceremonies were observed simultaneously on Aug.…
It’s been a little over a decade since China launched its Belt and Road Initiative, a global program to improve relations with Latin America and other developing regions through trillions…
Petroleum geologists explore for economically significant reservoirs of oil and gas using technologies that have evolved in sophistication as the industry grew to dominate the global economy in the twentieth…
TRENGGALEK/YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia’s second-largest Islamic organization faces a growing backlash following a decision to enter the coal mining industry, with more than 1,000 young Islamic activists from a mining…
LUBUMBASHI, Democratic Republic of Congo — After a devastating human toll of 11 dead and several ill due to continued air and river pollution, the village of Kabombwa has definitively…
MPONDOLAND, South Africa — The day the prospectors came, so did the storm. It was 2007, and clouds barreled toward the coast, driven by a wind that churned up dust…
In Bolivia’s Madidi National Park, the Andes and the Amazon meet. Their landscapes gaze upon each other, converge and embrace with the full force of their diverse and vast vegetation.…
Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) is a pillar of stability and opportunity for at least 16 million people worldwide, particularly in rural, impoverished communities. But with these pros also…
